PHOTO: Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter, from his website.
U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet joined their colleagues in a Senate resolution opposing Republicans’ plan to implement a national sales tax…
— Pagosa Daily Post, February 20, 2023
Maybe Colorado’s U.S. Senators have been paying attention to what’s going on in Pagosa Springs?
Reading today’s Daily Post article about the proposed ‘FairTax Act’, it looks like Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet may have noticed how the Archuleta County commissioners tried to get us to increase our County sales tax from 4% to 5.5% last November, and how that measure went down in flames. Even though the BOCC was promising us ‘safe roads home’.
Personally, I would have settled for a ‘safe road to City Market’, but maybe that’s expecting too much.
Here in Colorado, we get to vote on proposed tax increases. We don’t get to vote on the taxes we pay to the federal government, however. We have to rely on the intelligence, conscientiousness, and vigilance of the Congress and the President.
In other words, we’re pretty much screwed.
But as a famous man once wrote, the only things certain in life are death and taxes. Not necessarily in that order.
Last month, Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) introduced the FairTax Act in the House of Representatives, proposing to repeal all federal taxes — including the individual family income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes, and all other taxes — and replace them with a national 30% sales tax.
Not a new idea, exactly. The same basic Fair Tax was first proposed in 1999 by three Georgia legislators, and gets introduced every year by someone or other. During the 113th Congress (2013-2015) the bill had as many as 83 sponsors — House and Senate combined. Buddy Carter was able to drum up only 30 sponsors this time around.
We might note that the bill’s sponsors cleverly made the word “FairTax” into a single word. That way they doesn’t have to claim that this proposed bill will actually result in “fair taxes”… because “FairTax” is obviously something slightly… unique?… and who knows what it’s supposed to mean, exactly?
Buddy Carter’s version of the bill is 132 pages long, and the part I’m most worried about comes on page 128.
Federal records related to the administration of taxes repealed by title I of this Act shall be destroyed by the end of fiscal year 2027, except that any records necessary to calculate Social Security benefits shall be retained by the Social Security Administration…
I never liked the idea that the federal government was keeping records of the taxes I might have paid during my life. (Or that I might not have paid.) But I’ve been contributing hard-earned money into Social Security and Medicare for a bunch of years now, and I’d sure hate to see those records accidentally destroyed when someone wasn’t paying attention.
Meanwhile, there might be some big corporations out there, who forgot to contribute their corporate income tax, and I guess those records would also get destroyed?
What is Buddy Carter thinking?
Here’s how he sells the idea on his website:
The Fair Tax would repeal the current tax code and replace it with a single national consumption tax that is pro-growth and allows Americans to keep every cent of their hard-earned money. It is the only tax system that is simple, efficient, friendly to economic growth, non-discriminatory, unintrusive, and FAIR.
I like the ‘uninstrusive’ part. It’s bad enough that, whenever I turn on my smart phone, criminals in Russia and China start tracking my movements and following my online activities. (The U.S. government does the same, but at least they are my government.) So ‘unintrusive’ is a good thing.
As noted at the beginning of this column, our two Colorado Senators are not happy about Buddy Carter’s ‘FairTax’ proposal… which is actually pretty much the same ‘Fair Tax’ proposal that failed to garner much interest when introduced .
The White House is also not excited by the (worn-up?) idea. During remarks on the economy last month, President Biden said a national sales tax would only make things more expensive for working class families, and said he would veto the bill.
From a rant on the White House website:
In addition, some Congressional Republicans continue to push a national retail sales tax bill that would repeal most existing taxes and impose a new 30% sales tax on American families. The legislation would increase debt by trillions — and cut taxes for a couple making a million dollars a year by more than $200,000 — and at the same time would raise taxes by at least $7,000 for a retired couple with $60,000 in Social Security income and at least $6,000 for a single mom making $38,000, a recent analysis found.
I think the White House is sort of ‘cherry-picking’ here. They talk about a “retired couple” and a “single mom” who would end up paying a lot more of their limited income. But they don’t say anything about a poorly-paid, unmarried, humor columnist.
Of course, when Buddy Carter says his bill would allow Americans (like me) to “keep every cent of their hard-earned money”… he actually wants 30% of it.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.