The Battle Cry

There is a war going on and it could not be more evident than in public and private employment. Public employment jobs average some 44% more in salary and benefits than private sector jobs.

Why? Because when the private sector has an economic downturn they pull back, lower prices, reduce spending and possibly layoff workers. When the public sector experiences an economic downturn, they request a bailout, increase taxes, vote themselves a pay raise and go on they merry way under the guise of righting every injustice heaped on the have nots by the greedy capitalists.

The point that is missed with our elected officials, local, state or federal, is that the money they spread around so liberally is not theirs. The government is not a for-profit organization. When Americans want the government to help them financially, the government doesn't just have a underground room filled with money that they can pull out a million here and a million there. If they help the poor or sick, that money comes not from some underground room but comes out of every taxpayers pocket. And don't even get me started on the financial bailouts! The government doesn't have any money that wasn't ours in the first place and this point seems to be missed by many an uniformed citizen.

Don't ask me why. Maybe it's because the common virtues that guided our country for over two centuries isn't hammered in our hard little heads anymore. Most of our society is becoming addicted to entitlements and we the voter are to blame. Those of us that understand the laws of thrift, working hard and suffering the consequences of our mistakes, still have to shoulder much of the blame, just as the welfare cheat does. That is because the productive people will hire CPA's to work the system and often just shut up and pay the extra freight because they can afford it.

The government counts on this and therefore placates the well to do with loopholes to avoid many of the absurdities this repressive income tax code imposes. All the while Joe Blow is left out in the cold. Still the ever increasing intrusion of government to Joe's right of the pursuit of happiness is also placated. Not with loopholes, but entitlement programs so as to keep him shut up as well. All the while the government is allowed to rape and pillage the economy to further secure their jobs and increase their wages that include medical and retirement programs that no private citizen can ever obtain.

It's like a dog chasing it's tail. When government is unwilling to curtail spending, the very taxes they impose make it more difficult for the private sector to succeed so they can pay for the increased tax burden.

Apart from the soundness of our present governments tax approach, what really spells the loss of liberty by this massive government intervention into our lives is what's going on with these corporate bailouts. Where in the constitution does it say that because the government pours money into a company, they have the right to fire it's CEO or board of directors? Well it doesn't, no matter how miffed you are as a taxpayer that money is going to bailout companies that are failing. The government also gives money and benefits to the individual through medicaid as well, but that doesn't mean the have the right to tell you if you are qualified to take a certain job does it? Of course not, or at least we hope not yet.

Now I'm not saying that unethical behavior in the private sector is OK in the name of capitalism, because it most certainly isn't. However, that is a problem with society not capitalism, and there are laws in our country to penalize these transgressions. Where the size of government and it's desire to protect itself circumvents so many of these laws is due to the outrageous effects the lobbys have over our elected officials. This influence perpetuates the self-serving drivel from Washington to extol the haves as greedy capitalists preying on the everyday citizen.

You see big government, big business and big labor, all sleep in the same bed. Washington holds the purse strings to billions of tax dollars, and big business and big labor have the wherewithal to hire lobbyists to influence how those government dollars are spent. This is why the federal tax code needs to be totally revamped.

The very nature of taxing income is absurd on a couple of fronts but most notably because it has created as series of loopholes for the very powerful business and labor lobbys. It also is regressive through it's progressive nature to heap ever greater burdens on the productive, to be redistributed amongst the less productive. This approach deters business to expand and incentivizes them to seek alternative venues for production. This of course further exacerbates the problem with the union battle cry to keep jobs in America and wages high. Talk about playing both sides against the middle, if these lawmakers did this in the private sector they be called the Mafia.

Remember the dog chasing it's own tail? Well that is our current tax system and it has to be reformed to restore liberty and opportunity every American deserves.

How? By adopting the Fair Tax.

What is the Fair Tax?

The Fair Tax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.

The Fair Tax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.

The Fair Tax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The Fair Tax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.

The Fair Tax:

Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
Allows American products to compete fairly
Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
Abolishes the IRS


The Fair Tax Five

The gloves are off as critics try to pick apart the Fair Tax. Trouble is, it's just a replay of the same five Fair Tax myths:

"The 23% rate is misleading. It's actually 30%"
Well, actually...

"It's not enforceable and evasion will be rampant"
Well, actually...

"It will not be revenue neutral at 23%"
Well, actually...

"The Fair Tax is not politically viable"
Well, actually...

"The Fair Tax is regressive and shifts the tax burden onto lower and middle income people"
Well, actually...


If you really want to get control of government spending and have real transparency in the ways government uses those revenues, I strongly urge you to read the definitive work on this subject by Neal Boortz and John Linder, in the book that is in paperback now and may even be in your local library called, "FAIR TAX, The Truth Answering The Critics."