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Is Obama going to call Mccain on his crap?

Samirol

Turbo Monkey
Jun 23, 2008
1,437
0
Is there an answer to the question or has it been asked, if the federal tax system went to a fair tax (spending based), what would happen to the state and local sales taxes? Would those go away and the state rely solely on the Fed? Would a Federal sales tax be on top of those? That seems like it would make some items almost prohibitively expensive.

PA doesn't sales tax clothing, unprepared food or prescription drugs. Sales tax is roughly 6% and most local taxes are 1% or less. If you added a 30% (roughly) Federal sales tax, that would make most thing impossible to afford.


or am I missing something?
It would replace the income tax with a national sales tax, so yes, in states with sales tax, items would be very expensive
 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
23
SF, CA
Full disclosure, I'm voting Libertarian because the support the Fair Tax (a spending based tax, not income), smaller govt, and doing the right thing, even if it's hard.
This has been covered before but the "fair tax" is a pipe dream and not because it's politically untenable. It's economically impossible and enforcing it would require a tremendous change in government org almost to the point of a police state.

Obama's tax plan is not as redistributionist as it's panned to be. It's simply relative to Bush's tax cuts (which targeted the rich) and McCain's additional tax cuts (which target the rich) that it looks like he's targeting the rich. You won't see an exodus on a mass scale. Current flight is occuring because of the rising national debt... the increased tax revenues and a budget surplus would start to reverse that trend which will help keep investment in-country despite the increased taxation.

What we badly need is to keep the economic engine moving, which means consumer spending, which means money in the pockets of people without capital. Ergo, Obama's plan.
 

X3pilot

Texans fan - LOL
Aug 13, 2007
5,860
1
SoMD
I see what the graph is trying to do, but my questions is with that graph laid out along a time line, have those numbers been adjusted to inflation and overall value of the dollar when comparing debt levels to any debt level in the past. It has to have some normalization, by data analysis standards.
 

$tinkle

Expert on blowing
Feb 12, 2003
14,591
6
Just to clarify: I'm definitely against the FairTax, it isn't good for the middle class, which is already being decimated.
in my period of middle class "decimation" under both bush terms, i have managed to save &/| invest 15% & give another 15% to charity.
my debt (house/car) is almost gone. yes, there are real people w/ real money problems, and at the risk of being offensive, i have to say a large chunk of their problems are self-induced. the last thing we need is an enabling gov't, it won't fix our consumerist culture.

just so you don't think it's about me, let me offer more anecdotal evidence from middle class america which are irrespective of religious beliefs, party affiliation, and family size: as a rule, those who have (& stick to) a budget, save for big ticket items, and set aside money for charity are financially secure for both now & the future.

above all else, they don't get sucked into this vortex of $50 gifts for the monthly random b-day party for their kids' friends. sheesh.
i see what it's trying to suggest, but wouldn't it be more accurate if it were in terms of gdp & other relevant & related figures, most notably the fact that carter & clinton were serving during peace time?

war's a helluva drug