FAIRTAX TESTIMONY BEFORE WAYS AND MEANS SUBCOMMITTEE ON TAX
On December 6, 2023, Steve Hayes, President of Americans For Fair Taxation, testified before the House Ways And Means Subcommittee on Tax hearing on Tax Policies to Expand Economic Growth.
Here is information about the Subcommittee on Tax and its membership.
My written testimony which was submitted prior to my testimony can be found at FAIRtax.org.
The hearing was live streamed, and a copy of the hearing video recording can be found here. If you go to the site, you will find that you have to let it count down about 15 minutes until the time on screen says 2pm before it starts.
The Ways And Means staff told us that the hearing would likely go from 2pm until 3:30 pm and they were not sure how many Members would attend.
It turned out that the hearing lasted until after 4:30pm and all of the Members attended. We even had the Chairman of the Ways And Means Committee, Jason Smith (MO), stop in to specifically ask me questions. The other Members did not expect him. He directly engaged me in a discussion about the FAIRtax.
Each speaker was given five minutes to summarize their position and then it was turned over to the Members to ask questions for five minutes each.
It became apparent that Mike Thompson (D-CA), the ranking minority member, was worried about the FAIRtax because he became the first of most of the Democrat members to attack the FAIRtax.
However, rather than provide me an opportunity to speak, Mr. Thompson asked Leonard Burman from the Urban Institute for his opinion. He proceeded to say that the FAIRtax would never work because you would have to exempt so much from the bill that the rate would have to be 60% and evasion would increase dramatically.
This process was repeated with many of the Democrat Members. They would attack the FAIRtax with unfounded accusations and misstatements and then not allow me to respond but ask Burman if he agreed.
A few of the Democrat Members did offer me an opportunity to respond and two of them, John Larson from Connecticut and Danny Davis from Illinois, indicated that they would welcome an opportunity to discuss the FAIRtax further with me.
My challenge to them was if they had specific objections to the FAIRtax, to sit down with us so we could try to find a way to address their objections.
Our movement has taken a large step forward and we now have clear evidence of the fear and concern that many in Congress have of the FAIRtax. It was very apparent because they didn’t talk about real reform but attacked the FAIRtax, the only plan that would be real reform.
The choice is easy—do we want a system for funding the federal government:
- That is so simple everyone can understand it.
- That shows the costs of the federal government on every retail receipt so all of us understand what we are paying.
- That helps U.S. companies compete with foreign competitors.
- That keeps jobs in the U.S. rather than exporting them to other countries.
- That permanently establishes the solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
- THAT IS THE LARGEST TRANSFER OF POWER FROM D.C. TO THE PEOPLE SINCE THE CONSTITUTION WAS ADOPTED.
D.C. is ignoring the one real solution that allows us to remain citizens and not subjects, the FAIRtax. The FAIRtax is simple, non-invasive, but most of all, IT WORKS!
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
If you don’t like the idea of the IRS and D.C. requiring you to reveal more and more of your private financial data and changing us from citizens to subjects, you should be helping to pass the FAIRtax.
- Under the FAIRtax, there are no more tax returns. You no longer have to disclose your personal financial information to the government.
- Banks and other financial institutions no longer have to tell the government about the dividends and interest you received, or about how much you made trading stocks, bonds or other capital assets.
- There is no need for the government to know anything about your IRA because you won’t need an IRA. The FAIRtax lets everyone save for their retirement tax free.
- And of course, if the government doesn’t have your confidential financial data, they can’t leak it.
In addition to solving the confidentiality problem, the FAIRtax lets business owners concentrate on making their business more profitable and beneficial for their shareholders and employees.
President Biden and Congress, pass the FAIRtax and:
- Do the right thing for the people of America and fix the broken income/payroll tax system!
- Go down in history as the ones who freed all present and future Americans from the tyranny of the income/payroll tax system.
- Ensure that there can be no more leaks of our confidential information.
- Transfer power back to the American people over how much tax they pay!
The FAIRtax transfers power from Congress and the bureaucrats to the people. We, not D.C., decide how much federal tax we pay.
There is no IRS—the states collect the FAIRtax.
Only retail businesses will have to collect the FAIRtax and remit it to the government.
Since less than 10% of the retailers account for 90% of retail purchases, there will be much less opportunity for evasion.
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
There is going to be a vote on the FAIRtax in the House of Representatives.
We now have the opportunity to force all Members of the House to show where they stand. They can:
- Vote for the present income/payroll tax system or for the FAIRtax.
- Support the corrupt income tax and the IRS or eliminate it. It can’t be any simpler than that.
- Hide the true cost of their government or pass the FAIRtax and show everyone the true cost of government on each retail receipt.
- Support the largest transfer of power from government to the people, the FAIRtax, or not.
If Members think that the FAIRtax needs to be amended to address a problem, then they can propose the change. Don’t let reject the entire bill because it has a perceived “flaw” that can be addressed.
Please stand with us and demand that your representative support a much fairer, much simpler and much more efficient way to fund the government—the FAIRtax!
The FAIRtax doesn’t pick winners and losers. Because it taxes spending, not earnings, the FAIRtax lets everyone save for their retirement tax free.
The FAIRtax will allow us to TAKE BACK CONTROL.
The income/payroll tax system is broken and no longer working—we can’t repair it but we can replace it with the FAIRTAX!
Join us and TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR LIVES—NOT WITH BULLETS BUT WITH THE ELIMINATION OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO OUR LIBERTY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY—THE INCOME/PAYROLL TAX.
We all should remember Edmund Burke’s warning that applies to our efforts to TAKE BACK CONTROL,
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
We should also remember this quote from George Orwell's 1984, which, if we do nothing, may foretell your and your children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
WHAT CAN EACH OF US DO?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives and attend Zoom town hall meetings demanding that if they really want to allow Americans to “TAKE BACK CONTROL”, the first step is to eliminate the income/payroll tax system and enact the FAIRTAX!
TAKE BACK CONTROL! Help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
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