by Howard Stephenson
There have been some really good books published this summer, like 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America and Freakonomics. The first is another book by former award-winning CBS news reporter Bernard Goldberg, author of Bias, who names the people he feels really are screwing up the country. You’ll be surprised at some of the names, but Goldberg makes a good case for each person he includes in the list.
Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner debunks conventional economics and explains, for example, that the falling crime rate is a result of legalized abortion because those who get abortions tend to be the worst parents. Both books have been on the New York Times Bestsellers List for a few weeks.
It really is encouraging to see that conservative non-fiction is so popular in America.
But the best conservative book to come along in a long time is The FairTax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS, by Neal Boortz, a conservative talk-show host, and Congressman John Linder. In its first week, the book jumped to number 1 non-fiction bestseller. The book is about abolishing the income tax and replacing it with a 23% retail sales tax on new goods and services.
I’m sure you’re wondering how these two authors could turn something as dry as taxes into a great read. Believe me, they did, and the book is compelling. You won’t be able to put it down. Three different legislators have shoved the book in my hand with a command that I read it.
So I did.
Support for the FairTax is sweeping ahead of the old flat income tax proposal thanks in large part to Boortz and Linder effectively selling an idea whose time just may have come.
The proposal would eliminate all payroll, inheritance, and corporate taxes, making the IRS a thing of the past. Also ended would be the income tax fraud, hassle, and the waste of a huge compliance bureaucracy.
Imagine ten years from now nobody feeling that April 15th had any significance because the national nightmare of filing income tax returns will have ended.
Enactment of the FairTax will repeal the individual income tax, the alternative minimum tax, corporate and business taxes, capital gains taxes, social security taxes, medicare taxes and all other federal payroll taxes, the self-employment tax, estate taxes, and gift taxes. In other words, the FairTax is a replacement for current federal taxes.
The FairTax is not a value-added tax similar to those that exist in Europe. Instead, the FairTax is levied only once, at the retail cash register.
Boortz and Linder say the FairTax will:
·Make America’s tax code truly voluntary, without reducing revenue
·Replace today’s indecipherable tax code with one simple sales tax
·Protect lower-income Americans by covering tax on basic necessities
·Eliminate billions of dollars in embedded taxes we don’t even know we’re paying
·Bring offshore corporate dollars back into the U.S. economy
.Allow workers to collect 100% of their paychecks
.Allow investing and saving without any tax consequences
The FairTax has been endorsed by many leading economists and supported by a huge and growing grassroots movement.
The book explains that it’s no wonder economists rally behind the FairTax: it will have an immensely positive effect on the American economy. The prices of consumer goods and services will remain essentially the same, with the removal of the embedded taxes compensating for the added consumption tax. American businesses will return operations to back to America. The richest Americans will now have a reason to bring their money back home where it helps fuel our economy.
For more information about the FairTax, go to www.fairtax.org .