The D.C. ruling class and their minions in Congress are ignoring the clear economic evidence about the harm that the income/payroll tax system is doing. Instead of recognizing that the rapidly escalating income/payroll tax evasion is clear evidence that the American people are demanding change, Congress is doubling down, wanting to make the IRS much larger so it can punish all of us and not just the people evading taxes.
Many of us have spent hours seeking to educate Members of Congress about the FAIRtax. Even when a Member agrees to co-sponsor HR 25—the FAIRtax legislation, we are often disappointed when the new co-sponsor doesn’t become an active FAIRtax advocate. Time and again we’ve seen co-sponsors fail to even mention the FAIRtax in interviews or media appearances. It’s as if their support of the FAIRtax is symbolic rather than substantive.
This is very frustrating to all of us who rightly believe that the actions of the D.C. ruling class and their minions in Congress are driven by greed and their own self-interest—not ours.
Many state level politicians share the same opinion as the Ruling Class and their minions in Congress, but they have to be somewhat more responsive to their constituents. Unlike the federal government, the states can’t just print more money to “buy” votes with and create dependence on their policies.
Obviously, laws passed by Congress apply to everyone regardless of which state you live in. But people can choose which set of state laws they want to live under. When politicians in New York, New Jersey and California attacked the “greedy” wealthy people in those states, many of them responded by exercising their option of moving to another state where taxes are lower and regulations are less burdensome.
High tax, high regulation states are realizing that they are losing citizens and businesses to states that have eliminated their state income taxes. An increasing number of states are being forced to make tax reforms in order to retain and attract state residents and businesses.
The Tax Foundation reported:
- Through July of 2021, 11 states, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, have enacted laws to reduce their income tax rates, with 10 reducing individual income tax rates and five reducing corporate income tax rates.
- In many states, these rate reductions are paired with other pro-growth reforms.
- These income tax reforms have various effective dates. Some are retroactive to the beginning of 2021; some take effect in January 2022; and others take effect in 2023 or beyond. Some will be phased in over time.
- Five states–Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, and Ohio–enacted laws to reduce the number of brackets in their individual income tax, creating a more neutral structure.
- Five states–Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio, and Oklahoma–enacted laws to reduce their marginal individual income tax rates.
- Of the 10 states that reduced their individual income tax rates, all but Wisconsin included reductions to the top marginal rate.
- Montana consolidated seven brackets into two, reducing the top rate and adopting a significantly higher standard deduction to provide targeted relief to those at the lower end of the income spectrum.
More states are actually looking at going further than just reducing their income tax. They see the competitive advantage that is enjoyed by Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Those states levy no state income tax at all.
New Hampshire currently taxes investment and interest income, but that is expected to phase out starting in 2023.
West Virginia Governor James Justice has submitted legislation to repeal that state’s personal income tax.
However, just reducing or repealing the income tax is only a start. The real solution is set forth in legislation introduced in Georgia, Alabama and Nebraska. Legislation proposed in those states would replace all state income and sales taxes with a state version of the FAIRtax—including a prebate for lower income residents.
The Georgia legislation received a major boost when former U.S. Senator David Perdue announced his candidacy for governor. In his announcement, he called for the end of the Georgia income tax. (Senator Perdue was a sponsor of the FAIRtax in the U.S Senate.)
Support is rapidly growing in Alabama and Nebraska for their own state FAIRtax legislation as their legislators point out that their states are losing residents and businesses because of their current tax policies.
CONCLUSION
As the residents of the states neighboring the FAIRtax states see the advantages of the state FAIRtax, they will demand it for their state.
What does the growing number of states that will be replacing their archaic income tax systems with a state level FAIRtax mean to Congress? First off, Members of Congress from FAIRtax states will undoubtedly see the positive effects that their FAIRtax has over their old income tax. Secondly, voters in those states will begin demanding that their national representatives abolish the federal income/payroll tax system and replace it with the FAIRtax.
They will correctly say, “What is good for a state is good for the federal government!”
OUR MESSAGE IS BEING RECEIVED AND UNDERSTOOD BY THE PEOPLE AND THEY ARE THE ONES WHO CAN DEMAND THE CHANGE.
When progress toward our goal of allowing the American people to TAKE BACK CONTROL of their tax system seems too slow, remember the words of Edgar Guest.
Don't Quit
by Edgar A. Guest
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit -
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
And many a fellow turns about when he
Might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than it seems
To a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up when he
Might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And when you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst,
You must not quit.
The FAIRtax can make a dramatic impact on all of our lives for the good. We can TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR LIVES!
Since we still have elections, we have the ability to elect federal representatives who will replace the complex income/payroll tax system with the FAIRtax.
We just need to keep pointing out the insanity of the complex income tax and the benefits of the FAIRtax to everyone. Our friends and neighbors who we need to vote with us for a sane system of taxation just need to be informed.
WHAT CAN EACH OF US DO?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives demanding that if the government really wants to eliminate the burden of filing income tax returns, they should enact the FAIRtax and do away with tax returns altogether.
The great 18th century Irish statesman Edmund Burke made a statement that applies in many ways,
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
If you want to prevent the IRS from being further weaponized to punish those of us who may object to the D.C. opinions and dictates of what is good for us, then help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
The IRS will be gone and we will pay our taxes when we make purchases. WE and not D.C. Elites will decide how much federal tax we pay!
If you have friends who don’t know about the FAIRtax, send them to FAIRtax.org. Have them watch the white boards under “How It Works” and, if they agree, ask them to please join us.
Then contact your Members of Congress and the President and demand that Congress pass -the FAIRtax—the only fair tax.
Remember, if we don't continue to tell the truth and demand a change, then this quote from George Orwell's 1984 may foretell our children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Is it hopeless? When confronted with a seemingly impossible problem, remember the statement attributed to the author George Bernard Shaw who wrote, You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”
Isn’t it time for us to ask, “Why not?”
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