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hawks4ronpaul
12-13-2007, 03:05 PM
If I heard correctly, NPR just announced a coming piece on Huckabee's ideas about ending the IRS (Ron Paul's policy).


http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

slantedview
12-13-2007, 03:06 PM
all things considered:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17209388

feel free to contact them, and ask them why huckabee's support for ending the IRS gets airtime, but not the man who originally proposed the idea, Ron Paul.

http://www.npr.org/contact/

select NPR program, All Things Considered.

Ethek
12-13-2007, 03:06 PM
Lovely how he would not cut spending one bit.

slantedview
12-13-2007, 03:07 PM
contacted them.

mconder
12-13-2007, 03:07 PM
Let me guess...change to a flat or sales tax and still get taxed the same amount as the old system? Sounds good to me? Who benefits? The government reduces their cost of collecting taxes so they can spend more on something else?

Eroberer
12-13-2007, 03:08 PM
Oh yeah, his fair tax proposition would be another way to really screw the poor over.

slantedview
12-13-2007, 03:08 PM
In recent weeks, the presidential contest in Iowa has found a new Republican front-runner in former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. His appeal has been primarily to social conservatives — and he has been attacked by anti-tax activists for approving tax increases as governor. But he has an answer for those critics: Abolish the income tax and the Internal Revenue Service.

Huckabee pitched his support for what he calls the "fair tax" at a recent debate in Iowa.

"That's the first thing I'd love to do as president: Put a 'going out of business' sign on the IRS and stop the $10 billion a year it costs just for them to operate," he said. "It's the best proposal that we ought to have because it's flatter, fairer, finite and family friendly. And instead, we've had a Congress that spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop."

Huckabee is talking about a consumption tax. Instead of paying taxes on what you earn, you would pay on what you spend. Huckabee would abolish virtually all federal taxes — including the income tax, the corporate tax, the Social Security tax — and replace them with a national sales tax he says could be just 23 cents on the dollar.

Huckabee's plan comes from a group called Americans for Fair Taxation.

"It's a good idea because the income tax system is badly broken and damaging the national economy," said Ken Hoagland, the group's spokesman. "The IRS would be abolished. April 15 would become just another nice spring day."

But could the plan really work?

"The answer's no," says Bill Gale, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. "There is an arithmetic problem. There's a political problem. Then there's an enforcement problem."

Gale says the way the proposal is presented is misleading. To replace the revenue lost by abolishing other taxes, Gale says, the sales tax would have to be 30 cents on the dollar, not 23 cents.

Gale also asks whether Americans would accept a tax on everything — from retail sales to home purchases to health insurance. If enacted, there would be political pressure to create a series of exemptions, which would push the 30-cent rate even higher.

"I think the real rate they would have to impose would be much higher — around 40 to 50 percent — if it were enforceable. And that's the kick," he said. "There is literally no country in the history of the world that has enforced a retail sales tax with rates anywhere near that amount. The incentives to evade just get too big at that point."

That's not true, say proponents of the "fair tax." Among them is Laurence Kotlikoff, a professor of economics at Boston University who was hired by Americans for Fair Taxation to evaluate their proposal. He says he believes it is sound and that tax evasion would not be a problem.

"We'd have all these otherwise unemployed IRS agents who can focus on the relatively small number of taxpayers: all the retail outlets. So I think there is the potential for more evasion. But I think there's the potential for more enforcement," he said.

But would the tax really be fair? Economists generally regard sales taxes as regressive because the poor spend a greater proportion of their income than the wealthy. But Kotlikoff says that under this plan, all families would receive a monthly subsidy, a so-called "prebate," to offset the tax on bare necessities. So low-income families would end up paying no taxes at all. The wealthy, who buy and spend a lot, would pay a lot.

"Somebody like Steve Forbes, if he was to throw himself a big birthday party and spent $10 million, 23 percent of that would go right to the government. Whereas, right now, that wouldn't happen. So this has got a lot of progressive figures that most Democrats and liberals don't understand," he said.

FactCheck.org analyzed the plan and concluded that the poor probably would do better thanks to the subsidy. But it also found that many middle-class taxpayers would end up paying more than they do now — and that the very rich would pay much less than they do now.

And what about the plan to abolish the huge bureaucracy of the IRS?

"Well, it's a great talking point," says Brooks Jackson, a former reporter for CNN and The Wall Street Journal who is now the director of FactCheck.org. "But you would need two other bureaucracies, and they would be huge: One to enforce the sales tax. You'd also need a bureaucracy to administer the biggest welfare system ever devised, which would give every American a prebate to make up for the effects of this tax on low-income people."

Skeptics also question whether it would ever be possible to sweep away the current tax system, protected as it is by special interests and powerful members of Congress. But supporters of the "fair tax" say if enough people rise up, even Washington couldn't resist a second tax revolution.

azminuteman
12-13-2007, 03:09 PM
The 'Retail Media' has absolutely no clue.

The 'Fair Tax' is more Duncan Hunter's idea than Huckabee's. Huckabee just said "Me too!"
The 'No Tax' is only Ron Paul's idea.

hellah10
12-13-2007, 03:09 PM
im really starting to hate NPR - they are becoming as bias as the other media outlets

hawks4ronpaul
12-13-2007, 03:09 PM
It is this evening's show ("All Things Considered"?).

Maybe they just want his comments on Paul but they did not mention Paul in the teaser.

Vendico
12-13-2007, 03:16 PM
lol they have always been bias.

slantedview
12-13-2007, 03:17 PM
My message:

"I noticed your segment today on Mike Huckabee's plan to "end the IRS" and was generally wondering why NPR, along with many other media outlets, have found it prudent to cover Mike Huckabee's plan to end the IRS and replace it with an equivalent tax, yet to not cover Ron Paul's plan to end the IRS and replace it with nothing.

After all, this notion of ending the IRS has been championed by Ron Paul for many years, whereas Mike Huckabee borrowed the idea for himself only more recently. As a loyal NPR listener, I'd like to hear more equal and thorough coverage on this issue."

slantedview
12-13-2007, 03:18 PM
lol they have always been bias.

traditionally, they've not been too bad. i listen to NPR almost every day and keep an ear out for anything unusual. this kinda pisses me off though, which is why i'd encourage sending them a note.

Todd
12-13-2007, 03:18 PM
Oh...Ho Ho Ho....
this is so rich!!! Now Huckabee is the savior of the overtaxed. Un-freaking-believable!!!!

And the sad thing is people will believe this Horse crap.

slantedview
12-13-2007, 03:19 PM
Oh...Ho Ho Ho....
this is so rich!!! Now Huckabee is the savior of the overtaxed. Un-freaking-believable!!!!

And the sad thing is people will believe this Horse crap.
If you read the piece, they present commentary from both sides, for and against the "plan". I only wish they'd mention ron paul in this whole "end the IRS" talk.

Pete Kay
12-13-2007, 03:21 PM
Uh, you guys are a bit delusional if you think that Ron Paul is the first person to propose ending the IRS. Huckabee ahs been pushing the "Fair Tax" farce for some time now. Most of Ron Paul's positions are not new, they are traditional.

tsetsefly
12-13-2007, 03:23 PM
i hate huckabee with passion, he sure is not endorsed by jesus, because he doesnt exist but if jesus did exist you can bet it would be the devil ntot jesus endorsing this asshole, i woudl love to kick him in the balls...

He is a low scumbag, idea stealing(maybe not this one, but all of a sudden talking about the constitution, eliminating the department of education and then saying federal government should control education haha), rapist releasing, ayatollah wannabe...

Paulitician
12-13-2007, 03:25 PM
NPR sucks... those shameless a-holes.

BTW, to say Huckabee is stealing Ron Paul's position is incorrect. Ron Paul has been for getting rid of the IRS for decades, but it's not like Huckabee thought to himself "whoa that's an idea that will give me a lot of points, I'm going to steal it." Huckabee is for getting rid of the IRS/Income Tax and replacing it with a gigantic national sales tax, i.e. the FairTax. That's not the position Ron Paul holds. And I would second what Pete Kay had to say.

slantedview
12-13-2007, 03:26 PM
Uh, you guys are a bit delusional if you think that Ron Paul is the first person to propose ending the IRS. Huckabee ahs been pushing the "Fair Tax" farce for some time now. Most of Ron Paul's positions are not new, they are traditional.

i didn't see anyone saying "first". from what i understand, he's been pushing it much longer than huck has. that is all.

bolidew
12-13-2007, 03:28 PM
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23 (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23)

Todd
12-13-2007, 03:32 PM
Yes...but the fair tax by itself is still a tax and not the same as what Dr. Paul is suggesting. I was for a fair tax until someone actually had the cajunas to suggest abolishing it all.

Ron said on "The Tonight Show" that he wants a real fair and flat tax. "I want to make it real flat.. like Zero"

hawks4ronpaul
12-13-2007, 03:40 PM
I do recall Huckabee talking about the "fair tax" before and I recall him confusingly claiming that he would abolish the "IRS"--except the Internal Revenue Service could exist without an income tax and the "fair tax" agency would be an IRS with a different letterhead.

http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

Energy
12-13-2007, 03:45 PM
Ron Paul has been saying this for 20+ years.

jnpg
12-13-2007, 03:57 PM
What would this do to the economy? And poor people would definitely get the short end of the stick- rich people have enough $ to find a cost-effective way around most taxes.

AFM
12-13-2007, 04:18 PM
I sent them an email.

Richandler
12-13-2007, 04:20 PM
im really starting to hate NPR - they are becoming as bias as the other media outlets

National (socialist) Party Radio

That's all they are. They are run by soccer moms with an agenda for control.

Menthol Patch
12-13-2007, 04:23 PM
Who cares.

Huckabee has no desire to reduce the size of the federal government. The Fair Tax would do NOTHING to reduce the size of the federal government. It would only be another HUGE tax to replace the income tax.

Patronus
12-13-2007, 04:26 PM
The FairTax is actually the brain child of radio talk host Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder from Georgia. If you want real detail on it you can read their book. I've had mine signed by Boortz. http://www.amazon.com/Fair-Tax-Book-Saying-Goodbye/dp/B000UENRO2

If you get into the nitty gritty of it, pure implementation really isn't that regressive. The problem is that it won't be implemented outright. There will be a transition with both an income and sales tax, and no guarantee that we'd get rid of both.

And yes, the real issue is that this doesn't get rid of spending at all. It's just a new twist on how the government will screw you. Smoke and mirrors. But what else would you expect from Huckabee?

Danny Molina
12-13-2007, 04:30 PM
What's the point of ending the IRS if we aren't going to see any tax breaks?

ronpaulitician
12-13-2007, 04:33 PM
If I heard correctly, NPR just announced a coming piece on Huckabee's ideas about ending the IRS (Ron Paul's policy).
Huckabee's plan is not to end the IRS, but to replace the IRS.

ARealConservative
12-13-2007, 04:35 PM
Oh yeah, his fair tax proposition would be another way to really screw the poor over.

In the sense that they would now have to help pay the costs of the programs being directed towards them, I suppose.

Although I don't consider this "getting screwed".


A fair tax will shift the tax burden in a manner that might finally make people think about what they are voting for.

hawks4ronpaul
12-13-2007, 04:38 PM
Huckabee's plan is not to end the IRS, but to replace the IRS.

In other words, Huckabee's plan is not to end the IRS but to rename the IRS.


http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

slantedview
12-13-2007, 04:41 PM
National (socialist) Party Radio

That's all they are. They are run by soccer moms with an agenda for control.
soccer moms? ivy league graduated soccer moms? sure....

hawks4ronpaul
12-13-2007, 04:52 PM
soccer moms? ivy league graduated soccer moms? sure....


GW Bush is an ivy league graduated soccer dad.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1670398-2,00.html

Does that make Bush and NPR trusted truthsayers?




http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

Wingman
12-13-2007, 04:53 PM
contacted

EvoPro
12-13-2007, 04:56 PM
Ron Paul has said that he would sign a replacement of the Income tax during the transition period.
But why not replace it with a more simple consumption tax that doesn't tax necessities such as food, heath care, ect.

The fair tax involves a prebate, in essence sending every American a check each month. Talk about a nanny state. This would create many lazy people depending on these government checks, while the bureaucrats will fight over who will raise the people's allowance. Which means higher and higher taxes.

hawks4ronpaul
12-13-2007, 05:04 PM
Ron Paul has said that he would sign a replacement of the Income tax during the transition period.

Why not just incrementally increase the income tax's standard deduction and exemption from filing as a phase-out?


http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

hawks4ronpaul
12-13-2007, 05:07 PM
NPR just used the word "replace" in reference to Huckabee's plan.


http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/