Letter to a Relative...why we need the Fairtax NOW

Remember you said we needed help for the small businesses? Did you know that most small businesses, even those with only 10 or so employees, have revenues of $250K or more, but their owners often clear less than the employees make? I know this for a fact. I lived it. I know many small business owners. They will all tell you the same thing.

Because most small businesses are sole proprietorships, the income is reported on the owner’ 1040 and a higher tax rate which is proposed, means the owners must lay off an employee to pay the tax. If John, who hires Joe has to pay an additional $20 or $30K in taxes because he is a small business owner who grosses over $250K, yet he’s only clearing $40 or $50K for himself and John and his family, who is going to fund the $20K in taxes, John and his family? or the last employee he hired? If that tax bill comes before he hires Joe, will he hire Joe at all, or be forced to pay the tax bill?

But wait, if Joe goes to work for a government entity, then would that still apply? Sure, because the counties are cutting budgets too, because those people from those small businesses whose employers had to lay them off are loosing their homes and therefore there isn’t as much tax revenue coming in from property taxes. It’s an economic reality that higher taxes result in lower tax revenue. Weird but true.

Case in point: The expressway authority in Orange County just voted to raise every toll by $.25. They tried this years back, and fewer people used the roads and toll revenues actually went DOWN. They’re going to prove the point again, and like before they’ll soon backtrack just like they did before. But in the meantime, lots of people who NEED the tollroads are going to see their “tax” go up by maybe $50 or $75 a month. The original promise was made that the expressway authority was temporary and all the tolls would eventually be removed and the EA would be dismantled. But once you get a taxing entity in place it’s very hard to get rid of it.

And you think there’s no tax increase being planned at the federal level for those under $250K? One example: The budget plan includes billions in revenue from a new energy tax. Sounds like a tax on big business right?

Well, I guess that won’t tax the middle class and the poor unless they use gasoline, heating oil, natural gas or electricity. You do know that the government makes more on a dollar of gasoline than the oil companies, several times more. And corporations big and small figure taxes into what they charge you and me as “expenses”. They have to. Because they have to pay the bills, tax bills included. THERE'S A BETTER WAY!!

You were saying that you guys still have taxes coming out of unemployment checks and your occasional checks from odd jobs. Wouldn’t it be helpful to all of us AND stimulate the economy if we had 10-15 or 25% more spending money instead of the government giving money to things like mosquito catching in Gainsville, planned parenthood for publicly funded abortions, $95,000 for the Peoria Riverfront Museum, $2 million to promote astronomy in Hawaii, $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa and $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. $400,000 to combat bullying at schools in Montana, $95,000 for the Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago, $2.2 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in Geneva, New York, and $381,000 for music programs at the Lincoln Center in New York City. While these may be ok things to do in good times, shouldn’t that money and the rest of the BILLIONS of dollars in “special projects” dollars be given back to you, to Joe, to the people who are struggling to make mortgage payments, and buy food and other basic things that actually do stimulate the economy. Should it be taken from you in the first place? If you want to donate to music programs in New York City, you can certainly do that if you want to, but should some bureaucrat in Washington decide you HAVE to?

I’m just sayin…WE NEED THE FAIRTAX, NOW. The rich will pay MORE because they spend more. The poor pay nothing and in fact get their whole paycheck plus the prebate so their spendable dollars increase by up to 25%.

Taxes should not be based on income. When did it become a bad thing in this country to strive to be successful? Why do we penalize productivity? Isn’t that what this country is all about? Why can’t we get the Fairtax? Because it takes away the power of the Washington elite (dems and reps alike) to manipulate the tax code and that tax code is KILLING this country.

I want to see every American benefit from jobs coming back, $13 trillion in corporate investments come back from overseas, a broader tax base that includes illegal aliens, drug dealers and the like who now get a free ride, and more money in BOTH our pockets!!

I just wish we could educate enough people to get this done now. Because there is some truth to what you said, that often the new ones who replace the old ones often do exactly the same things. It’s time we as American citizens educate ourselves and figure out that giving these power mongers more power over us will end up in us all being slaves to the political elite. That’s not what the Founders envisioned.

The only way to get our country moving forward again to regain it’s former power is to not oppress the people who make it great, the ones who work hard at every strata of society, the ones who believe that America stands for opportunity, and every person has the opportunity to be successful. And make it a country where that is really TRUE again!! Pass the FAIR TAX!!

I listened last night to some of the CPAC speeches including Ron Paul. He was not my candidate, but a lot of what he says makes sense. He even said last night that we need to repeal the 16th amendment! Even Newt Gingrich talked about a moratorium of portions of the income tax, allowing you and me to determine how “stimulus” money is spent, rather than Washington elites.

It is TRUE that Republicans and Democrats alike have sold us out. And while I sometimes slip into calling myself a Republican it’s really a habitual term that used to be synonymous with being Conservative but it’s not any more. REALLY, I am not a Republican. I’ve contributed NO MONEY to the Republican party for several years now. I am a Conservative and I have no party that truly represents me. I suppose the Libertarians are close, but some of their views are pretty extreme. I just want all of us to be free of the danger of an overzealous power structure in Washington.

That is why I work so hard for the fair tax legislation.