While not every member of our group is a FairTax supporter, many are.
Donald Koop is an RTP member and a FairTax supporter and he wrote an excellent commentary that recently appeared in the Roanoke Times.
The merits of the FairTax is a matter for debate (although certainly better than anything that is hapening in DC now), but no one can debate the destructive affects of the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) and the general apathy that seems to grip the public on these key taxation issues. Issues like tax policy and the oppressive Federal Reserve system aren’t issues that generally get people off the couch…but Donald is spot on in his article.
Donald says it better than I can…
Apathy. That is the word I would use to describe the prevailing attitude in Roanoke and Southwest Virginia in the matter of federal tax reform. To be sure, there are dyed-in-the-wool activists and head-nodding supporters. But, there are also quizzical-looking listeners, it’ll-never-happen deniers, I-haven’t-got-the-time spectators, and I’m-not-interested wave-awayers.
I and a core group have volunteered over five years of our lives to bring the FairTax to our area. We consider it to be the best example of tax reform and one that would be very good for our people, our economy, and our country. Without question we have managed to produce a higher level of knowledge about the proposal. What we have been unable to produce is a large, motivated group of citizens ready to come forward and create the level of public pressure necessary to move the politicians to enact the pending FairTax legislation (H.R.-25).
Other reformers support some kind of flat tax, an entirely different version of tax reform. While the FairTax taxes consumption, the flat tax taxes income. The FairTax requires neither the completion of paperwork nor the presence of the IRS; the flat tax requires both. The FairTax provides progressivity by refunding the tax on basic goods and services; the flat tax does it by providing targeted exemptions. The FairTax is a single proposal; the flat tax takes numerous forms.
In spite of differences in approach, supporters of the FairTax and a flat tax share one common goal: total replacement of the current system with a new one. Supporters of each plan must work together to promote reform.
Among our citizens, much as for the weather, almost every one talks about hating the federal income tax but relatively no one is doing anything about it. We manage to find the time to devote to activities we believe in but, in the matter of tax reform, few sense the urgency. If it’s urgency you want, let me figuratively hand you a freshly lit, giant firecracker: the Value-added Tax (or VAT).
The VAT is commonly used in Europe and is usually combined with high levels of government-provided services. It is the ultimate in hidden taxation that works by adding a tax to every stage in the development of a good or service for public consumption. All the levies are totaled and added to the usual cost of the item. Most VAT’s start at low rates and proceed quickly and stealthily to high levels, on the order of 20%. This raises the price of everything by that amount and, in our country, would be enacted to supplement the income tax! The money that can be raised is huge and it would all come from our wallets.
For weeks, since the Obama Administration’s influential economic advisor Paul Volcker declared the VAT must be considered, political and economic commentators have been a-buzz with the possibility of adding it to the income tax. Although the motive might be to reduce the deficit, history shows that spending will rise to match the new income.
Just think, all the pleasures of the current income tax plus an expensive sales tax on most everything we buy! And, the VAT is such a mysterious tax that it can be increased at will with the public hard pressed to know what is going on. It has been said that if the VAT is enacted it will kill all other options for tax reform.
Only one thing can prevent Congress from introducing the VAT: an aroused public that makes clear their opposition to such a step and demands true reform. Roanoke Area FairTax, flat tax supporters, Tea Parties, and reformers of all stripes need to unify to produce a loud, unmistakable message: the current tax code needs to go! A good place to start is to support passage of Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s “Tax Code Termination Act (H.R.-982)” that calls for termination of the income tax code by a date certain, with the replacement to be decided later.
A community that can muster only 40 people on a Saturday morning to view an excellent film on our current tax situation is clearly not a threat to balky legislators who are unwilling to take the lead on tax reform. It is the community that holds the key. All it has to do is care. And, make sure that Congress knows it cares. Make your tax reform voices heard!
