Tag: FairTax

Club for Growth report on Huckabee flawed?

Joe Carter rebuts the Club for Growth’s scrutiny of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s fiscal record as governor.
Well worth a read. (source no longer online)

For several months the Club for Growth has been attacking Huckabee’s bona fides as a fiscal conservative. In the process, they’ve slandered the Governor’s record, deceived numerous trusting conservatives, and cast doubts on the organization’s honesty and trustworthiness. It’s a disgraceful situation made all the more shameful by our continued willingness to be duped.

While Huckabee was in his first term as Governor of Arkansas he:

  • Pushed through a Democrat legislature the first, major broad based tax cuts in the state’s history.
  • Pushed through a Democrat legislature an $80 million tax cut package.
  • Cut the state’s capital gains tax by 25%.
  • Established a Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights.
  • Limited the increase in property taxes to 10% a year for individuals and 5% per taxing unit.
  • Eliminated the income tax for families below the poverty line.
  • Increased the standard deductions.
  • Eliminated the marriage penalty.
  • Eliminated bracket creep by indexing the income taxes to inflation, thereby preventing taxpayers from moving into a higher bracket when their paychecks increase due to inflations.
  • Doubled the child care tax credit.
  • Eliminated capital gains tax on the sale of a home.

Of course Huckabee is the only candidate, that I know of, who has pledged to give his support the FairTax if he’s elected. Sure other candidates have said they’d sign it if it ever comes up, but Huckabee says he’ll work for it, which will lead to a complete overhaul of our current tax system and give you much more money in your pocket as well as completely shut-down the IRS.

Get rid of the IRS

In the past I’ve been a big fan of a national sales tax – but now I’m reading The Fair Tax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS and I have to say I’m really a big fan.
Did you know that 22% of the cost for each item you purchase in the U.S. goes towards someone covering the cost they had to pay along the way towards taxes? In other words, if we could cut income taxes, corporate taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicaid Taxes and all the others, retailers could sell products for 22% less than they currently do. Granted you might say like I did, well the manufacturers and such will just keep that 22% profit. But in a free market, with competition the costs will eventually be lowered.
Let’s say MyCar Co. makes a $10,000 car. After the IRS is gone the 22% cost of taxes is eliminated from the cost of making their cars. So MyCar Co. CEO says, “Alright, that’s 22% more profit.”
But YourCar Co. also makes a $10,000 car. And while the CEO realizes he could keep prices the same and make a 22% profit, he also realizes that if he cuts his price by 5% he’ll still make a 17% profit and he’ll be able to take more customers away from MyCar Co.
Suddenly MyCar Co. has to cut prices to compete and then YourCar Co. matches. In the end, your $10,000 only costs $7,800.
Even with a 23% sales tax on your car, the total price would be $9,594.
On top of that, imagine:

  • being able to keep 100 percent of your paycheck, pension, and Social Security payments
  • all Americans paying their fair share of taxes
  • enabling families to save more for home ownership, education, and retirement
  • making American products more competitive overseas
  • no changes to the current revenue levels for the federal government
    Imagine….
    Read more at FairTax.org – or just buy the book from the Casa de Blundell Store.
    Oh and another thing, there is one presidential candidate who continues to pledge that he will fight to appeal the 16th amendment and institute the FairTax – any guesses?

    • Debate reaction

    I missed the GOP debate last night. With small group at our house last night and our DVR already recording two other shows, there was no way for me to see it. I’ll be looking for it on the Interweb today though.
    Here are some comments already circling (from the Mike Huckabee campaign)…

    Christian Hine has some good post debate thoughts posted on his blog www.SaveTalkRadio.com:

    In the few questions that Mike Huckabee was allowed to answer, he clearly shined through. In fact, while applause was very limited in this debate, Huckabee’s answers on a hypothetical Iran first strike situation and on health care generated support from the audience. He is also starting to have an impact on the language of the tax debate. His support of the FairTax and the overwhelming grassroots efforts by FairTax supporters have actually gotten Romney talking about “embedded taxes” and McCain talking about making the tax code “flatter and fairer”. When your candidate is the one that the others are emulating, that is a sign of success.

    Alex Harris at I Heart Huckabee has the video of Governor Huckabee’s appearance on Hardball after the debate and roundup of some great coverage including one of our favorite comments so far:

    Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone:

    That Mike Huckabee hasn’t caught just a little bit of fire is a mystery to me. He’s charming and funny, and always seems reasonable even when he’s preaching to the freepers. I don’t know why the James Dobsons of the world are threatening to leave the party rather than throwing their weight behind this Southern Baptist minister with a concealed-carry permit and a “covenant marriage.” Someone whose phone calls Focus on the Family actually returns ought to ask Dr. D. just that.

    A agree whole heartedly.

    Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post:

    Judged by who can offer a serious approach to economic policy, the hands-down winner in the Republican race so far is Huckabee, who combines intelligence, candor and comfortable familiarity with the issues and a practical approach anchored in solid conservative beliefs.
    If only the political press were as impressed with the quality of a candidate’s program as with his name recognition, it would be Huckabee, not Thompson, who was energizing the Republican contest.

    What about you? Who are you pulling for now? Still just picking a guy because you think he can beat Hillary? Did you know that in the latest polls, in a head to head match-up, Huckabee was only 8 points behind Hillary and 9 points behind Obama? Maybe if you got behind him and told your friends – we could reverse those numbers.

    Listen to NPR’s coverage from Morning Edition here.