The American Spectator

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Fair Tax Counting

11.30.07 @ 12:01AM

TRY TO BE FAIR
Re: The Prowler's New Arrangements:

Unfortunately, The American Spectator got it wrong on just about every count about the FairTax campaign. Firstly, we are not out of money but have scaled back recently to recover from our big push earlier this year in Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina. We went for broke in these states -- and just about did. But our sustaining membership and one time contributors are helping us right now recover from the intense and expensive program that made the FairTax the talk of the Iowa Straw Poll and the early primary states.

Secondly, the FairTax is in no way an offshoot of the Scientology religion. While this group did apparently once advocate a national sales tax to replace the income tax it bears little resemblance to the FairTax which was developed independently by economists and market researchers commissioned by FairTax.org over the past decade. We have spent $22 million on economic and market research to develop our proposal. To say we are an "offshoot" of Scientology is about the same as saying the Space Shuttle is an offshoot of a flying fish.

Finally, whatever moves the Huckabee campaign is making in Florida or elsewhere, they are independent of our efforts to bring a public message of FairTax support to every campaign -- including Democratic candidates. Our FairTax bus will be in Iowa shortly and now that we are recovering from the cost of our earlier successes, will be seen again in Florida, South Carolina and possibly New Hampshire in the coming months. Reports of our demise are, therefore, greatly exaggerated and even though we have gone through both flush and hungry days over the past decade, we are here to stay until we see enactment of legislation that ends the dysfunction of the income tax system by shifting the power of taxation decisions from the federal government to individual citizens.
-- Ken Hoagland
Communications Director
FairTax.Org

I just wanted to point out that the Prowler's statement that the Fair Tax group is "a one-time offshoot of the Church of Scientology" is completely incorrect. You can find a rebuttal to Bruce Bartlett's Wall Street Journal inaccuracy here.

Bartlett or his researchers confused Citizens for an Alternative Tax System (CATS) with Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT) and the FairTax. Make sure you scroll down beyond the letter to the editor of the Wall St. Journal to the headline: "FAIRTAX, FLAWED TAX?" where Neal Boortz addresses that slander in prose only he can write.

I suggest all read the Fair Tax book. It is quite illuminating. I can't believe we'll ever get Congress to give up their power by putting something like this in place, but the idea is out there -- perhaps one day.
-- Deborah Durkee
Marietta, Georgia

Citizens for Fair Taxation (www.fairtax.org) is not now, nor was it ever, associated with the Cult um...I mean Church of Scientology.

A group of Scientologists got together and proposed a sales tax to replace the income tax only. This proposal should not be confused with the Fair Tax, which replaces most, if not all, of Federal taxes with a nationwide imbedded sales tax. By replacing all current taxes, prices would not change a great deal.

Citizens for Fair Taxation is a non-profit group made up of economists and lawyers who spent well over 10 years researching the best way to replace our progressive tax system with an open, free, and self-sustaining tax code that can benefit our economy and every American.

I give Huckabee full credit for supporting the Fair Tax. We need more politicians who do. I will still never vote for him, despite the fact that I want the Fair Tax to pass and be written into law.

Such an open and fair tax policy should be the standard platform of ever conservative. Eliminate the IRS, and we would have smaller government almost by default. Look at those who support the fair tax the most. Realtors support the Fair Tax to a large extent, though the National Realtors' Organization does not. CPAs support the Fair Tax, and their industry would probably suffer from its implementation in the short run (we will always need accounts, even if we don't need them for taxes). A large number of lobbying organizations exist just to lobby Congress about the tax code, the National Realtors' Organization being one of these. One and all, they do not support the Fair Tax as it would put them out of business. And wouldn't we all like to see a reduction in lobbyists?

Please, stop associating the Fair Tax group with Scientology. It's a misrepresentation of this important piece of legislation and the group of very intelligent people who made it, and makes it that much harder to describe all the benefits.
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

By any measure, it is now plainly obvious how the Washington Prowler views the virtues of the Fair Tax. Using Gov. Huckabee as a foil in the column was a total red herring. What TAS should really be ashamed of is the veiled hit job performed by the Prowler by relating the Fair Tax not just once, but twice, to the Church of Scientology (CoS). Additionally, the Prowler made the totally false claim the Fair Tax effort was out of money. In fact, the Fair Tax effort is better funded than Huckabee's own presidential campaign.

It has been proven, time and again, that HR25 (in the House of Reps) and S1025 (in the Senate) has absolutely no ties to the CoS. The Fair Tax-to-CoS claim has been made in the past by columnists who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo. The tax scheme the CoS came up with many years ago was their answer to an unfavorable IRS tax ruling and bears absolutely no relationship to the current legislation (HR25) offered by Rep Linder (R, GA). The Fair Tax was borne by Houston businessmen, whom through private funds, charged a group of economists and academics to come up with a tax system which would fully fund Fed Gov operations at current levels, while at the same time, taking out all the pain and suffering experienced by us taxpayers each April 15th and turning the United States into a true tax haven.

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