Redstate

Your subject title is unbecoming of this site imho. Why do you single (double?) out Rudy and Mitt? YOu think the others support a repeal of the income tax? Also, you call the flat tax silly? As compared to what? our present nanny state, Orwellian tax book that gives breaks for kids, single mothers, and whoever the government decides is more worthy?

A flat tax would be great, but I have heard of no candidate that says he would go to the mat for it (sadly). I know no present candidate says he would fight for a sales only tax.

Molon Labe!

Huckabee has The Flat Tax as his main platform. Hunter and Tancredo are co-sponsers and HUGE proponents. Fred Thompson says he supports total elimination of the Income Tax. Even Democrat Mike Gravel is a staunch Income Tax opponent.

Of the Republican candidates, only Rudy and Mitt openly ridicule an Income Tax alternative.

Do you deny this (I guess you do)? Where do you get your info, Doc.

Oh, and the so-called Flat Tax is 100% an Income Tax. It is silly to pretend it isn't. And it does absolutely nothing to end FICA or Corporate Income Taxes. In my experience, people who claim otherwise are making up their own flat tax (in their mind) rather than referring to Rep. Army's legislation by that name.

FairTaxWarrior
http://www.FairTaxWarrior.com

The Club for Growth white paper on Fred Thompson reports:

In fact, Thompson was the only senator to vote to table an amendment proposed by Senator Dorgan that took the flat tax off the table during a budget debate. "The problem with the Dorgan amendment is simple," Thompson declared in a press release the following day, "it puts you on record against a flat tax. I think a flat tax is one of the options that should be considered as part of the debate on comprehensive tax reform."

Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

I support the flat tax. I have seen every debate, read Realclearpolitics, as well as many other political sites daily. I have not seen any major candidate say he will fight for a flat tax or national sales tax. I am sure a few have said they support it, but I am talking implementation. I hope I am mistaken, I hope I have missed the boat. I want a president that will spend all of his political capital to trash the present tax code.

I find it interesting that "mr flat tax", Steve Forbes, is a senior Giuliani advisor.

Molon Labe!

I found it interesting that Fred is the ONLY Senator that voted to table an amendment that was intended to completely eliminate the flat tax from consideration. I can see Forbes on Guiliani's side, but I could never see Forbes supporting Romney at all.

Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

With any major tax hike, flat or not. Any flat tax proposal that would be revenue neutral would amount to a major hike on the middle class. The Forbes plan was 17% plus the 15.3% we are paying in payroll taxes. Politically that is going nowhere.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman

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Mike Huckabee is an adroit public speaker. He communicates his message in life-like, cogent terms, with compelling examples like the story he told (at the Ames Straw Poll) of what his then-11-yo daughter entered into the "Comments" section of a Visitors Book after visiting the Yad Vashem holocaust museum: “Why didn't somebody do something?” Very effective.

Huckabee is all about calling his listeners to "do something," to awaken them to their own empowerment, and summon them to action in order that "Main Street," and not "Wall Street," will prevail in guarding the values and beliefs upon which the Republic was founded.

Huckabee puts his listeners at ease, and reassures them, articulating clear concepts in a natural, easy style (no doubt something well-cultivated as a pastor). He’s not angry or demanding, like a Ron Paul, nor is he as “rigidly-scripted” as Romney, and his large brown eyes peer through a humble demeanor, drawing a striking contrast to a somewhat mechanical-squinty Brownback. One can easily imagine sitting comfortably with this man over a cup of coffee at the Main Street Cafe.

Most importantly, perhaps, Huckabee convinces many that he is ONE with the FairTax grassroots movement. While many - like Romney, and others, who are invested in the current income tax system - seek to demagog the well-researched FairTax plan, its acceptance in the professional / academic community continues to grow. Renown economist Laurence Kotlikoff believes that failure to enact the FairTax - choosing instead to try to "flatten" what he deems to be a non-flattenable income tax system - will eventuate into an irrevocable economic meltdown because of the hidden aspects of the current system that make political accountability impossible.

Romney's recent WEAK response to FairTax questioning on “This Week with Geo. Stephanopoulos” drew a sharper contrast between Huckabee and all other presidential front-runners who will not embrace it. Huckabee understands that what's wrong with the income tax can't be fixed with "a tap of the hammer, nor a twist of the screwdriver." That his opponents cling to the destructive Tax Code, the IRS, preserving political power of granting tax favors at continued cost to - and misery of - American families, invigorates his campaign's raison d'etre.

Of the FairTax, Huckabee asserts that it's...

• SIMPLE, easy to understand
• EFFICIENT, inexpensive to comply with and doesn't cause less-than-optimal business decisions for tax minimization purposes
• FAIR, FLAT, and FAMILY FRIENDLY, loophole-free, and everyone pays their share
• LOW TAX RATE is achieved by broad base with no exclusions
• PREDICTABLE, doesn't change, so financial planning is possible
• UNINTRUSIVE, doesn't intrude into our personal affairs or limit our liberty
• VISIBLE, not hidden from the public in tax-inflated prices or otherwise
• PRODUCTIVE, rewards - rather than penalizes - work and productivity

A detailed benefits analysis of the plan (from The FairTax Book) explains Huckabee's ardent advocacy:

For individuals:
• No more tax on income - make as much as you wish
• You receive your full paycheck - no more deductions
• You pay the tax when you buy "at retail" - not "used"
• No more double taxation (e.g. like on current Capital Gains)
• Reduction of "pre-FairTaxed" retail prices by 20%-30%
• Adding back 29.9% FairTax maintains current price levels
• FairTax would constitute 23% portion of new prices
• Every household receives a monthly check, or "pre-bate"
• "Prebate" is "advance tax payback" for monthly consumption to poverty level
• FairTax's "prebate" ensures progressivity, poverty protection
• Finally, citizens are knowledgeable of what their tax IS
• Elimination of "parasitic" Income Tax industry
• NO MORE IRS. NO MORE FILING OF TAX RETURNS by individuals
• Those possessing illicit forms of income will ALSO pay the FairTax
• Households have more disposable income to purchase goods
• Savings is bolstered with reduction of interest rates

For businesses:
• Corporate income and payroll taxes revoked under FairTax
• Business compensated for collecting tax at "cash register"
• No more tax-related lawyers, lobbyists on company payrolls
• No more embedded (hidden) income/payroll taxes in prices
• Reduced costs. Competition - not tax policy - drives prices
• Off-shore "tax haven" headquarters can now return to U.S
• No more "favors" from politicians at expense of taxpayers
• Resources go to R&D and study of competition - not taxes
• Marketplace distortions eliminated for fair competition
• US exports increase their share of foreign markets

For the country:
• 7% - 13% economic growth projected in the first year of the FairTax
• Jobs return to the U.S.
• Foreign corporations "set up shop" in the U.S.
• Tax system trends are corrected to "enlarge the pie"
• Larger economic "pie," means thinner tax rate "slices"
• Initial 23% portion of price is pressured downward as "pie" increases
• No more "closed door" tax deals by politicians and business
• FairTax sets new global standard. Other countries will follow

Passionately supporting FairTax, Huckabee understands that, if elected President, Congress will have to present the bill for his signature. His call to action goes beyond his candidacy: Main Street will have to demand that their legislators deliver the bill.

We had tariffs and specific taxes on items like whiskey even in the Washington administration.

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Washington taxed and calling it a day.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.

It'd probably be a big tariff cut, too.

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Taxes are sooooo out of hand

The fair tax encourages drug sales by not taxing it relative to other forms of leisure. Not only that but it exempts prostitution from taxes yet legal strippers have to ask their customers for 30% above what they stuff in their g-string.