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Campaigning For FairTax Revolution

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By TOM JACKSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 17, 2008

Before it was rudely interrupted by Russia's invasion of neighboring Georgia, much of the national campaign - whether for president or any of the contested seats on Capitol Hill - revolved around the tax code, a dreary topic except that it tends to reveal the nature of the electorate.

One side, with breathtaking presumptiveness, wants to help itself to a greater portion of the contents of others' wallets. The other side prefers, at least, to maintain the current arrangement, in which the wealthiest 10 percent - with 44 percent of national income - pay 68 percent of income taxes, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Standing in the eye of this age-old storm is an appropriately calm gentleman who, nonetheless, blends the passion of an evangelist with the steadfast certainty of an economics professor. As the cyclone of complaint whirls ever more furiously over nudges in marginal rates, John Linder clings like a barnacle to his rock of certainty, declaring against the howl, "Look! A better way!"

Tax Refund Every Payday

Linder, the dentist-turned-congressman who represents Georgia's exurbs northeast of Atlanta, is Washington's foremost proponent of scrapping the federal tax code - 70,000 daunting pages - and replacing it with a miraculous little 132-page instruction manual that would put the United States out of the business of taxing (and thereby blunting) ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, industry, risk-taking and job creation.

Linder's inspiration is a national retail sales tax (also called the "FairTax") paid by end-users and collected on new products (from toothpaste to new-construction houses) and personal services.

Advocates say the FairTax works like this: All products and services sold in America contain a 22 percent "imbedded tax" consisting of federal taxes paid, plus the cost of compliance and avoidance measures. Strip out that 22 percent cost and, say economists, competitive forces drive prices down almost exactly that much.

Now, they say, add a 23-percent national sales tax for revenue neutrality. A loaf of bread, a new car, a trip to the doctor, a movie ticket, a consultation with a lawyer - essentially, any end-user component of the economy - costs essentially the same.

Ah, but instead of making those purchases with after-tax dollars, American wage earners, business owners and investors would buy with personal accounts uncompromised by Treasury's heavy hand.

Changing Washington's Focus

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, who originally recoiled at the FairTax plan, has become a co-sponsor. She likes it for a number of reasons, not least among them that it would end forever Washington's fixation with how and from whom it acquires revenue (throttling lobbyist-laden K Street), and focus its attention on spending.

Linder will address those two wondrous eventualities plus any and all of two-dozen other projected benefits (4 percent 30-year fixed-rate mortgages; a 10-percent first-year surge in GDP; offshore corporations rushing for home) Wednesday at a FairTax tent revival at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church on Collier Parkway in Land O' Lakes.

Sermonizing begins at 2 p.m. Prepare for an epiphany.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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