Just checked out the Fair Tax Calculator offered by the Americans For Fair Taxation.
I used some rough estimates but here’s what I would save if we abolished the IRS and replaced it with the Fair Tax Bill:
With the Fair Tax, I’d get:
34.60% MORE spendable income.
$12,385.43 MORE purchasing power.
$15,676.76 LESS federal taxes.
Anyone else watch the GOP debate last night from Florida? Seemed quite civil compared to what I heard from the Democratic debate earlier this week.
MSNBC seemed to think Mitt Romney won the debate afterwards but I wasn’t impressed. Granted I already have my pre-conceived notions about him so that may have blinded me somewhat.
I thought John McCain and Mike Huckabee did a great job and I was also impressed with Ron Paul. Paul’s ideas may not be mainstream but he knows his reasons behind them.
I loved the challenge Huckabee gave to moderator Tim Russert. While Huckabee talked about how the Fair Tax would help stimulate the economy and help save Social Security, Russert basically said, “The idea of the Fair Tax is very improbable” (not a direct quote). Huckabee came back and said, “that’s what’s wrong with America. We keep saying that’s improbable or unlikely rather than looking for ways to make it work” (again not a direct quote but the gist).
And you can tell Huckabee knows the Fair Tax. If you’re wondering more about it, be sure and visit the Americans for Fair Taxation website.
What were your impressions after the debate?
From WiseBread:
Chicago is testing a coinless parking meter system, The Tribune reported yesterday. You might think that would be great for consumers, eliminating annoyances like the hunt for coins and the need to pay for more time than you actually use.
It’s true, drivers would no longer have to plug the meter with change. But apparently the City of Chicago considers parkers’ tendancy to overpay more of a feature than a bug. In fact, the city is apparently so consumer-hostile that it plans to keep parkers’ overpayments and charge the next customer for the very same time.
The city claims their losing thousands of dollars from people “piggy backing” off time that’s unused from previous cars.
In other words, if you pay for 30 minutes in the parking meter and leave after 20, the city claims that anyone who parks there and uses/takes advantage of those remaining minutes left on the meter is costing the city money. They think they should be able to charge two people for that same parking spot during those left over 10 minutes. With the new meters, the time on the meter will be wiped clean every time a car leaves with minutes remaining on the clock.
Just another example of a governmental authority taking all they can from Joe Citizen.
Seems like many politicians would believe that the salary you get is actually their money and anything you get to take home is simply, “the cost of doing business” and of course, like any good business man, they’ll do all they can to lesson the cost of doing business.
Karl Marx writes in his Communist Manifesto, 10 planks which are to be used as a test to determine whether a society has become communist or not: