Notes from the Special Order FairTax House session broadcast on CSPAN

I recorded it and watched it all and took some notes. These are just my thoughts and constructive criticism. Overall the exposure is very welcome and additional media coverage will be especially useful.

An interesting aside, but I checked the Omnibus bill and found that only Reps Linder and Broun had no earmarks next to their name. Rep. Duncan is associated with 8 of his very own! Can't have it both ways.

In general, I was disappointed with the whole hour. I am no expert on such things but what is the point to making a presentation like this to an empty house, save for the folks who are already "in the tank". All those empty chairs. A stenographer records the proceedings to be published in the record which no one reads and about forty people other than us who watched CSPAN become the effective audience.

On top of all that, articulation was so poor at times, I found myself screaming at the TV things like "mention the rebate", "use the word 'progressive'", "consumption tax, not sales tax". These guys really need some "bumper sticker" style slogans too.

As I said, I took a few notes and would like to address some of the things actually said. Hopefully, this is useful and some thought can be given on how to better sell the FairTax.

1. No mention of the prebate. No mention of how the "unwealthy" are not penalized. In fact, everybody gets a fair shake except for the uber-rich, who can fairly easily avoid taxes under the current system, and the underground economy (the latter was mentioned).

2. The tax is only on the initial sale of new goods and the provision of the services. This would not be obvious to anyone hearing about the FairTax for the first time.

3. Stop calling it a national sales tax. It's inaccurate at worst, unhelpful at best. Hard enough to sell anything with the word "tax" in it as it is. The key message here should be "stop taxing income and tax consumption instead". Linder said it best, "Tax wealth, not wages". That's a bumper sticker right there.

4. The "Skittles" story was weird. It made it sound like the FairTax was an exclusive tax, like state sales taxes are right now. Under the FairTax, the price of the "Skittles" would include the FairTax and you'd have to study the receipt to see what part of the sale is being collected in terms of the FairTax.

5. Foreign tourists DO pay taxes right now. Everything they purchase while in the US includes taxes in one form or another. They are consumers. They aren't going to spend any more just because we have a FairTax and they aren't earning an income here now, so isn't this a zero-sum game?

6. Need to be more clear about how the FairTax leads to increasing Government revenues. People keeping 100% of their income means spending power increases. Increased spending means increased consumption which, with a consumption tax, leads to increasing revenues. Rep.Broun dumbed this down so much, it sounded like he was saying revenues would flow back into the Treasury because folks keep 100% of their earnings. To anyone hearing about the FairTax for the first time, and has half a brain, this would make NO sense.

7. Some great talking points: "Privilege of Anonymity" - no one needs to know how much you make, especially the Government. "Taxing Capital and Labor adds to the cost of Capital and Labor but Taxing Consumption increases Capital and Labor". "$400B in tax code compliance costs every year removed from the economy; that's stimulus EVERY YEAR!" "$13T in USD-denominated foreign holdings can all come home".

I hope we can get all pro-FairTax reps to improve their delivery. Maybe they can take some tips from Prez Teleprompter, I mean Obama.