By now you’ve probably got the notion that the politicos in Washington have stopped listening to you and have settled in on the idea of keeping the power and status that goes with ‘serving’ our country. You also have learned that Washington believes that they know what is good for you, your family, your business, your livelihood, and your childrens’ education.
Paramount in every one’s mind today is the economy. As never before in our nation’s history and in world history, we no longer have just our economy sandwiched between two oceans living happily ever after. We are part of a global economy that is subject to the give and take, or if you will, the actions and reactions of industrialized nations around the world.
With that in mind, what we are hearing from Washington nowadays is that government spending of apocalyptic proportions is going to bring our economy around to recovery. And that couldn’t be more wrong. To think otherwise, you must assume that the government makes money and it is just spending the money it makes to help us. Fact is, the government only prints money, it doesn’t make a thin dime. The money the government uses is made by you and I. In fact, they have been spending money that we, our children, and our grandchildren haven’t yet made. The government gets it through taxation. They don’t make it, they take it. And they take it in ways that are punitive to those that create it, and in ways that hurt the most vulnerable among us. That would be the poor, and the means is the payroll tax. They take it so they can spend it in ways that will insure not only their re-election but their hold of power for power’s sake. NOT for the improvement of the economy.
As I said in the previous post, a lot of politicians will have to go into a 12-step program to wean themselves from of the old way of ‘control through taxation’ before real progressive change can take place in America. Question is, what will make them do that? Who will make them see the light? There is only one answer to this question. The people that elected them, you and I, are the ones who will proscribe it. First by electing like minded representatives. Second by pushing for a Constitutional Convention.
Georgia’s Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has planted the seed and Neal Boortz, co-author of the Fair Tax book and Fair Tax: The Truth, Answering the Critics, has expanded on it. This is the kind of change that I’m talking about. What follows is from Boortz’s website.
We need a Constitutional Convention called for the sole purpose of adding three specific amendments to the United States Constitution. The convention would consider these three amendments … and nothing further. Two-thirds of the States need to pass a resolution calling for such a convention, and those resolutions need to be specifically worded so as to limit the purpose of the convention to these three amendments. Without that limitation we’re going to have left-wing fools trying to add amendments guarantying such things as a right to a job, a place to live and health care. Not good.
So .. what are the three amendments? (You don’t listen to me all that much, do you?) Very simple …
1. An amendment to the Constitution repealing the 16th Amendment. What is the 16th Amendment? That would be the income tax. By repealing the 16th Amendment the Congress would be forced to come up with a new way of generating the revenue needed for the legitimate functions of our government.
2. An amendment repealing the 17th Amendment. The 17th Amendment calls for the popular election of U.S. Senators. Before the 17th Amendment each state legislature would appoint that state’s two Senators. The congressmen were in Washington to represent the people, and the Senators were there to represent the states. Right now the government of Mexico has an official representative in Washington; the government of New Mexico does not. This enables the federal government to run roughshod over the states with unfounded mandates and other federal demands. Give the state governments a voice in Washington .. repeal the 17th Amendment.
3. An amendment setting term limits for members of the House of Representatives. Give them three terms, then send them home. Yes, I know, there are some people we would truly like to keep up there to pursue some worthy objectives, but in the balance we’re hurt by those who spend taxpayer money to solidify their power than we are would be by sending the few good representatives home at the end of six years.
Now .. here’s the reality here. The Congress would probably never permit this Constitutional Convention to be called. As soon as they saw state legislatures passing the resolutions to bring these things to pass we would see the members of congress trying to beat the citizens to the punch. No … they’re not going to send the choice of Senators back to the states, and they’re unlikely to set term limits for themselves. But we might actually see some movement on the repeal of the 16th Amendment and serious consideration given to the FairTax.
Dreaming? Maybe so, but maybe not. Get the right grassroots organization formed to push this idea for a Constitutional Convention and you just might rattle some cages in Washington. Who knows? Maybe the people might start counting again.
Our Representative in Northwest Florida, Jeff Miller, is a supporter of the Fair Tax as a method of tax reform and economic recovery. We have to work on the others around the country and our Senators as well. For more information about The Fair Tax see the links below. The ‘grassroots’ is you and I. In Pensacola come join us and be part of the solution. Hit the Pensacola Fair Tax Meetup Group link below.
It is, or would be, a big change. Taken in perspective though, it only represents a different way of financing the government. We’ve grown up with the current system. It seems ‘normal’ to us. But alas, there is a different way to accomplish that. A better way.
The different way, The Fair Tax, is a way to raise revenue that actually promotes growth, industry, and personal freedom rather than depress growth, industry, and personal freedom. It also represents a revenue system that is totally transparent. Nothing hidden, no additional fees, no 65,000 pages of loopholes to meander through. No tax lawyers or accountants needed, no tax returns to file, no $300 billion to spend on filing annual tax returns, which is the case now. And if you don’t want to pay taxes, don’t buy anything. Can’t be more transparent than that.
The reason the 16th Amendment would need repealing is to insure that we only have one taxing system, not two. Otherwise, the Fair Tax won’t be able to do what it can do, and we would end up with an even more bastardized taxing system than the one we currently have.
Were we to adopt the Fair Tax, leaving the opportunity for Washington to pile on an income tax on top of it is an exercise in futility. Without the repeal of it, believing that politicians won’t at some time in the future ease it back in is like giving a crackhead a hundred bucks and expecting him not to buy dope with it.
Repealing the 17th Amendment, returning to the state legislatures the responsibility and authority of sending their Senators to Washington could only be an improvement, now that we’ve seen what happens to some Senators when they get there after being elected. Once they get inside the beltway, they turn into geniuses that know better than us what our needs in our own states are. They behave like it is their duty to make laws, continuously, that include unfunded mandates. In reality, all they need to do is to represent us, not push us around and help bankrupt our state coffers. Makes one hope for gridlock more often, if you know what I mean.
Term limits can go both ways. There will always be someone who you know ought to stay in office. There will always be someone who, while in office, does more harm than good, or doesn’t do anything at all. Some think term limits would just make a crooked politician become crooked faster. The BIG crooks turn out to be the ones that have been in office long term. IMHO, term limits would discourage the career crooks from entering politics in the first place and would leave it to citizens committed to doing what is right for their constituents for the time that they have. In the long run, I think it we would be better represented with term limits.
I would be so violently against repealing the 16th and 17th amendments. Thank GOD it will never happen. I wouldn’t want to live in a country like that.
The term limits I’d have to think upon. I like term limits but I think three terms might be too little. Four or five might be better.
My you seem like an angry liberal Marilyn. Just chill a minute will ya? What did I ever do to you?
From your comments I can tell you haven’t a clue about the Fair Tax and how it would work. That’s OK, practically nobody knows about it, or how it will work. It is a new (for about 10 years now)idea. In reading your comment, it makes me wonder how you are so certain that ‘Your policies do not work’ when you don’t know what they are.
Take all your pent-up anger about that ‘how do you pay for’ crap and set it aside, because that has nothing to do with the Fair Tax. Those items don’t have anything to do with raising revenue for the operations of the country which is all that the Fair Tax does.
Now I’ll address your concerns that DO have to do with taxation.
1.)’just how do you run this country on your limited tax revenues?’
In fact, the Fair Tax is designed to be revenue neutral. That is to say, it is designed to bring in the same amount of money as the current taxing system brings in. I’d hardly call that limited by any measure. And when the economy grows, so will the revenue, painlessly, whether we need it or not. Can you say, ‘pay down the debt?’
2.)’It sounds to me like you want all poor people to go ahead and die already.’
I don’t know where you get that from. Under the Fair Tax, the poor will pay no taxes, period, including the taxes for the necessities of life. No one will pay those taxes up to the poverty level. This is spelled out in the bill and insured by something called the prebate which everyone will get on a monthly basis up to the poverty level. Under the current system however, poor people, who often have to get two or more jobs to make ends meet, get hammered with the payroll tax with every job they take. Where the poor are concerned, the payroll tax is the most regressive tax going and borne by the largest segment of population that can least afford it. With the Fair Tax, anyone who works, including the poor, will get to keep all of their paycheck every time they get one, forever.
3.)’And, here is another corker…that business will pass on to consumers their tax savings. Yeah..right.’
You are speaking here of the embedded tax which is included now in everything we buy, which will go away under the Fair Tax. You know why they will? Competition will force them to do that. To put it another way. The consumers will force them to do that when the company finds that people are not buying their stuff any more. The free market has its own checks and balances, and this is one of them.
I hope this helps answer your concerns Marilyn. And I’m glad that you found out that you would benefit from it, to the tune of about $3000. I think my scenario was similar. Fact is, everyone will benefit. And those filthy rich people who pay no income taxes because they live off of investment income, will start paying ‘their fair share’ when they buy the yachts and condos and Bentleys. You see, it all works out.
The BIGGEST thing that you haven’t accounted for, but I will right here, is the tremendous amount of new business that will return to this country under a Fair Tax system that is estimated to be between $10 and $15 trillion dollars. That business and job growth won’t cost taxpayers a dime nor will it put us further into debt.
I’ll give you a couple days to see this reply before I move it to a relevant post. The post you used is the language translation page.
Thank you Marilyn, for your comments.
I just completed your calculator on the Fair Tax. I will come out about 3,000 ahead. My question…just how do you run this country on your limited tax revenues? How do you pay for the abomination in Iraq? How do you pay for the murderers Blackwater? How do you pay for the KBR contractors that electrocuted our soldiers in their showers? How do you cover the pallets of billions of dollars in cash that was passed out to God knows who in Iraq? How do you cover the loss of revenue caused by the tax-cuts by the clown bush? Your policies do not work. It is time for a New Deal. It sounds to me like you want all poor people to go ahead and die already. Very Christian of you. And, here is another corker…that business will pass on to consumers their tax savings. Yeah..right. You know…you should post on Gulf1. Mike West is one of yours. He has thrown me off is site for years now. You will fit right in. It is very slow and boreing there…maybe you can juice it up.