Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., appears to have flip flopped on his pledge to sign federal legislation replacing all federal taxes with a 23 percent sales tax, according to an unedited FairTax.org video reviewed by ABC News.
“He has not taken this pledge,” Thompson spokesperson Linda Rozett told ABC News.
The Thompson camp’s denial appears to be contradicted, however, by an unedited FairTax.org video in which Thompson is asked, “Senator, if the House and Senate pass the ‘Fair Tax’ bill do you feel right now that you would sign it?”
Thompson replies to the question by saying, “Yeah, absolutely.”
“Fred Thompson may have spoken without thinking. But the tape is accurate,” said FairTax.org spokesman Ken Hoagland.
1 Response to “FDT Flip-Flops on Fair Tax”
Something to say?
Naysayers railing against the FairTax become, ipso facto, defenders of the an INCOME TAX system that has enabled the profligate spending that IS bringing the country to an economic meltdown (*). Do FairTax naysayers really believe:
• Workers love having their pay confiscated, hourly, through gov’t withholding and don’t mind getting their money back by involuntary servitude – to the tune of 50 hours/year (on average) – preparing an annual tax return?
• That certifying the number of persons in your family (annually, and, ancillarily, upon change in household) is an abrogation of our freedom – more intrusive and complex than filing a tax return every year subject to threats and intimidation by theIRS.
• It’s better to have theIRS fishing through citizens’ income transactions (complete with audits, interest, penalties, and threats against individuals, families, businesses as well as confiscation of their homes, property, and bank accounts) rather than – Gawd forbid – issuing a gov’t check to an individual (while pretending that Social Security payments disbursement logistics really can’t work for “prebates”)?
• That an monthly advance tax rebate is the same thing as “being on the dole” ? (Only lobbyists, special interests, and business deserve “handouts” ? – the politician gets a payoff from a lobbyist, the lobbyist gets a payoff from its client, and the citizen gets higher taxes and/or prices that pay for it all.)
• “Hidden taxes” in higher prices are fine because they’re not “taxes”? (Hey, forget that families are really paying business’s costs for complying with a business income tax codes – staff, consultants, submittals, etc.)
• It’s far better to have a gargantuan tax collection “service” in Washington, than to have 50 decentralized, smaller, leaner state collection agencies collecting taxes from fewer sources?
• That the work by notable economists (paid tens of millions of $’s by Americans for Fair Taxation) doesn’t carry weight because it was paid for by private funds instead of some gov’t / quasi-gov’t enterprise?
• That FairTax’s backing by many economists (**) doesn’t carry any weight because (the Brookings’) Wm Gale’s testimony before the President’s Commission on Tax Reform is – somehow – above all that?!
(NOTE: The Commission/Gale made up their own “consumption tax” requirements, as if that constituted a legitimate rebuke of the FairTax plan. Dr. Kotlikoff has requested – but never received – Gale’s technical “modus operandi” which would definitively explain just how Gale’s conclusions can be reconciled with Kotlikoff’s well-documented technical work (***).
(*) MOST OMINOUSLY, WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME FOR THE FIX THAT FAIRTAX WILL PROVIDE. Prof. Kotlikoff elaborates: http://snipurl.com/meltdowninprogress
(**) http://snipurl.com/econsopenletter (Lists every tax that FairTax will eliminate, together with the power they represent to pol’s and lobbyists.)
(***) http://snipurl.com/taxpanelrebutted
The time for sitting around, pontificating, is over. We have NO CHOICE but to ACT: http://snipr.com/scrapthecode
Left by Ian
August 2, 2007 at 1:24am