John W. Martin: FairTax candidate in AL-02
Posted by BrianFrom the Dothan Eagle:
Dothan resident John W. Martin, who ran unsuccessfuly for a spot on the Dothan City Commission in 2006, officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Congress at Thursday’s annual Houston County Cattlemen’s Association annual meeting.
“I am dedicated, experienced and committed to serving the people of Alabama and representing you in Congress,” Martin told the Cattlemen’s Association.
Martin served for 23 years in the U.S. Army as an airborne ranger and AH-1 Cobra and Apache Attack helicopter pilot instructor.
Martin, who will run as a Republican, is touting that military background and his political inexperience as positives.
“I’m someone who’s not a professional politician,” Martin said. “The current pool of candidates doesn’t have any military experience, and a lot of people see that as a problem.”
“I hope he can win and accomplish the things he was talking about,” said Alabama Cattlemen’s Association President Max Bozeman.
Martin is an advocate of the FairTax plan, which calls for the elimination of income taxes in favor of a consumption tax.
“I’ve been the district director for the Alabama FairTax group for three years, and I believe in that,” Martin said.
“We have a tax system that is broken, and it’s not getting fixed,” he added. “I’ll fight to do what’s right, to abolish the income tax completely and bring in a 23 percent national retail tax.”
Here is a link to his campaign website.
Martin certainly faces long odds, but he’s going to put up the best fight he can. He’s already resigned from his job as an Apache instructor to focus solely on the race. And coming out with the endorsement of the president of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association is nothing to sneeze at with AL-02 containing lots of farmers.
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Martin’s advocacy of the FairTax ( http://snipr.com/irsgone ) is the single most important policy position in this election. Research findings explain why:
The FairTax rate of 23 percent on a total taxable consumption base of $11.244 trillion will generate $2.586 trillion dollars – $358 billion more than the taxes it replaces [BHKPT] ( http://snipurl.com/whatratewks ).
The FairTax has the broadest base and the lowest rate of any single-rate tax reform plan [THBP] ( http://snipurl.com/baserate ).
Real wages are 10.3 percent, 9.5 percent, and 9.2 percent higher in years 1, 10, and 25, respectively than would otherwise be the case [THBNP] ( http://snipurl.com/realwages ).
The economy as measured by GDP is 2.4 percent higher in the first year and 11.3 percent higher by the 10th year than it would otherwise be [ALM] ( http://snipurl.com/econbenes ).
Consumption benefits [ALM] ( http://snipurl.com/econbenes ) :
• Disposable personal income is higher than if the current tax system remains in place: 1.7 percent in year 1, 8.7 percent in year 5, and 11.8 percent in year 10.
• Consumption increases by 2.4 percent more in the first year, which grows to 11.7 percent more by the tenth year than it would be if the current system were to remain in place.
• The increase in consumption is fueled by the 1.7 percent increase in disposable (after-tax) personal income that accompanies the rise in incomes from capital and labor once the FairTax is enacted.
• By the 10th year, consumption increases by 11.7 percent over what it would be if the current tax system remained in place, and disposable income is up by 11.8 percent.
Over time, the FairTax benefits all income groups. Of 42 household types (classified by income, marital status, age), all have lower average remaining lifetime tax rates under the FairTax than they would experience under the current tax system [KR] ( http://snipurl.com/kotcomparetaxrates ).
Implementing the FairTax at a 23 percent rate gives the poorest members of the generation born in 1990 a 13.5 percent improvement in economic well-being; their middle class and rich contemporaries experience a 5 percent and 2 percent improvement, respectively [JK] ( http://snipurl.com/kotftmacromicro ).
Based on standard measures of tax burden, the FairTax is more progressive than the individual income tax, payroll tax, and the corporate income tax [THBPN] ( http://snipurl.com/lessregress ).
Charitable giving increases by $2.1 billion (about 1 percent) in the first year over what it would be if the current system remained in place, by 2.4 percent in year 10, and by 5 percent in year 20 [THPDB] ( http://snipurl.com/moregiving ).
On average, states could cut their sales tax rates by more than half, or 3.2 percentage points from 5.4 to 2.2 percent, if they conformed their state sales tax bases to the FairTax base [TBJ] ( http://snipurl.com/staterates ).
The FairTax provides the equivalent of a supercharged mortgage interest deduction, reducing the true cost of buying a home by 19 percent [WM] ( http://snipurl.com/homebenes ).
ALERT: Kotlikoff refutes Bruce Bartlett’s shabby critiques of the FairTax ( http://snipr.com/bbrebuke ).