A FairTax wake-up call
Posted by BrianAttention all politicians: the FairTax is becoming increasingly popular. Look at what happened in the Georgia congressional district previously represented by Charlie Norwood, who died in February.
Poorly funded physician Paul Broun Jr. scored a shocking 50.4% victory over former state Sen. Jim Whitehead, the establishment’s consensus favorite. Columnist Robert Novak says Dr. Broun’s victory has “terrified those incumbent Republican House members who had thought themselves safe for re-election in 2008″ primaries.
Adopting the FairTax was one of Broun’s signature issues. A former editorial page editor for the Augusta Chronicle said that Broun’s victory should be a “wake-up call” for the party’s establishment.
Personally, I think that if the GOP wants to retain the White House - and possibly win back some seats in Congress - they will have to promote big ideas that excite voters. Democrats are touting their own big (and expensive) ideas, but so far none of the leading Republican candidates have carved out a platform embraced by their base. The solution? The FairTax.
Fred Thompson is optimally positioned to make the FairTax one of his key policy components. Because he has delayed his formal announcement for so long he has created the perfect opportunity to make a splashy entrance replete with a concise list of goals that energizes the faithful.
Here in Alabama’s 5th congressional district longtime incumbent Bud Cramer is heavily favored to win another term next year. However his only announced challenger, Ray McKee, is running with the stated goal of working to implement the FairTax. McKee is a political outsider who only chose to enter the political fray because Rep. Cramer has refused to endorse or co-sponsor the FairTax. Without the war chest and name recognition that Cramer enjoys McKee certainly faces an uphill battle, but candidates who support the FairTax have done well nationally and I can personally attest that many in north Alabama strongly support the bill. We’ll see if he can make the race competitive - or if Cramer will decide to support the FairTax.
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July 23rd, 2007 at 10:28 pm
I got a chance to speak with Ray McKee Saturday (he was wearing his ‘Fair Tax’ t-shirt). He has a PhD Engineering and practices law - pretty bright guy. I think he’ll have to slick up some to win, but he seems to be right on some of the the issues I care about (taxes and security). Maybe he’ll give ol’ Bud a surprise - it’s almost happened before (when Peanut ran).
I’m with Fred - it would be terrific if he came out for the fair tax.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I’m for the Fair Tax until something better comes along. That something better would be for Ron Paul to be elected as our next president and for his policy of just abolishing the IRS and replacing it with NOTHING except less spending, and a smaller government that does no more than fulfill its constitutional duty of protecting the rights of all American citizens.
July 24th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Don*, I couldn’t agree more. The level of government spending and taxation is abhorrent and needs to be decreased. That being said I’m a realist and I understand that reducing spending by the amount that Paul advocates is highly unlikely. Simply reforming our current tax code to a system that is less onerous while retaining the same overall rate of taxation is hard enough.
This topic actually defines why I consider myself a little “L” libertarian and not a big “L” Libertarian. The big “L” crowd and the little “L” crowd share largely the same ideals, but the big “L” folks cling so tightly to them that they place themselves into a tiny political minority. Politics is all about compromise and Libertarians are a rather uncompromising crowd. I’m willing to accept the elements of the FairTax that I have philosophical objections to because whatever shortfalls it has it is still vastly better for Americans than our income tax.
I would personally like to trade in the rebate for a lower overall rate. I would like the rate to simply be lowered. Hell, I wish we could do what Paul endorses and just scrap it all - and I will actively support him to try to make that a reality. But, I’m hedging my longshot bet on Paul by continuing to try to marshal support for the FairTax, which I think stands a very good chance of becoming a reality.
*Sorry that I initially called you Dan. I type faster than I think.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I think the best Republican Presidential Candidate who is willing to sign the FairTax and also has a very strong conservitive stand on other issues is Mike Huckabee. check him out on You Tube. He may not be a media favorite but out of all the 10+ candidates he has the best overall platform. He said he would like to be the person to post a going out of business sign on the door of the IRS how can anyone not like this guy.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Huckabee easily has the best grasp of why the FairTax would be good for this country among all candidates. I have concerns about him as a candidate because he didn’t exactly distinguish himself as governor of Arkansas. His biggest accomplishment there was losing weight. If pressed, I would say that he did an overall poor job there.