FAIR TAX BLOGBURST 06-12-06

by MsUnderestimated

Folks, I’m telling you… after I was lucky enough to find out about this article in the Gwinnett (Georgia) Business Journal this week, I was asking myself that very question. Why in the heck doesn’t Congressman John Linder run for President? I listened to the 45-minute interview for the article, and read along with the transcript. You know what amazes me? This is a true common-sense man. It’s no wonder he’s been a shepherd for relieving the United States of the 16th Amendment for the past 10 years. You might not recognize his name, but you will definitely recognize the name of the book he co-wrote, and the legislation he wrote - "The Fair Tax."

Not in history that I can I recall has there ever been a book to open at #1 on the New York Times best-seller list and stay there for two weeks in a row, which was about the United States Tax Code. Boring, eh? Well, aparently you haven’t read "The Fair Tax." John’s gotta give his hat off to Neal Boortz, Libertarian talk-show host here in Atlanta, who wrote most of the book. Neal’s depth of knowledge of the tax code and its history, the abuses and wastes of the system as it stands, and his wry sense of humor make it not only a very easy read, but a pleasurable one, as well.

As many of my readers know, I attended the first ever Fair Tax Rally , and it was held here in Gwinnett Co., Georgia. I already wrote my review, and I just wish you all could have been there with me to witness the electricity of the event. I wrote in that article that "It’s Possible," and it is. All you have to do is believe - and be brave enough to want to help affect change.

If the Fair Tax passes, it will be the single largest transfer of power from the Federal Government back to the people in the history of this country. I feel like I am part of that 1% that affects change, as John Stossel pointed out at the rally. I’m one of those "big potatoes" that Herman Cain spoke of. And you can be, too. Only if you believe.

John Linder has also taken a strong stance on illegal immigration, and recently proposed that we adopt the exact same immigration laws as Mexico, verbatim, and he truly believes that what is good for the "Fox," is good for the "Eagle." I do not disagree with him one iota, and I wrote about it in another post.

Everything that I’ve heard and read before today made me swell with hope and pride - but after I listened to this latest interview, I’m even more filled with determination and FIRE, and the motivation to do whatever it takes to help this man succeed in whatever endeavors he chooses. I also plan to encourage him to run for President, although I’m not sure of his aspirations. He’s quite successful as a Republican Georgia Congressman. I am going to try to schedule him as a guest on my show on Wide Awakes Radio, so keep your fingers crossed.

John is right on the money about curtailing government spending, fighting terrorism, true tax reform, securing the borders with no amnesty, and a whole host of other issues. The following is an excerpt from from the full transcript of his interview with Christopher Lancette of the Gwinnett Business Journal:

Let’s jump right into it - explain exactly what the FairTax is.

The FairTax is a bill that would repeal all taxes on income - no more corporate income tax, no personal income tax, no payroll taxes, no self employment tax - no gift tax, estate tax, capital gains tax or alternative minimum tax. Any tax that is pegged to income would be gone, as would the IRS. We would replace that with a consumption tax - a tax of retail sales on personal consumption at final purchase of new goods and services.

Currently, the average taxpayer gives the government 33 cents of every dollar they earn. In our system, they would give the government 23 cents of every dollar they spend. Then we would provide to every household - every household - a cash distribution at the beginning of every month that would totally untax them up to poverty-level spending.

And what’s the status of the legislation?

Well, it has 54 co-sponsors, which is the most it has ever had. We’re going to meet very soon with the leadership of the House and Senate, and the Speaker (of the House - Dennis Hastert) has gotten the President of the United States to agree on meeting with me for an hour. And I believe we (Republicans) have to have a big idea to run on.

You say that all corporate taxes would be repealed. How would that benefit businesses?

Businesses spend a considerable amount of time complying with the tax code. We paid $265 billion in 2004 just filling out IRS paperwork. We spend another $150 billion calculating the tax impact implications of a business decision. There is not a businessman or woman in America that does not think about the tax implications of any choice they want to make. Under our system, we would effectively give the American people a $400 billion tax cut - letting them keep in their pockets all that money they spent on compliance. Businesses would for the first time be able to consider their employees, their customers and their shareholders - and not worry about the government.

The estimates we’ve heard are that compliance costs could decrease by as much as 90 percent. Is that accurate?

That’s very accurate. The only compliance left would be the compliance of the tax collectors - the retailers and the doctors and the dentists who have to collect the tax on personal consumption. Their compliance costs would be about 10 percent of the current compliance costs.

The event you and WSB radio talk show host Neal Boortz held at the Gwinnett Convention Center filled to capacity. Did the large turnout surprise you?

Yes it did. I expected to have a good crowd. We looked for different venues and that was the only one available that had 4,500 seats. We think we turned away 4,500 people. We think another several thousand people heard on the radio that the event was closed down, turned their cars around and went home.

I want to change tracks a little bit … The Republican-controlled White House and Congress have increased federal spending beyond the level of any Democratic administration. Do you think your party has dropped the ball on federal spending?

Put me in that group of disappointed people. We’ve had a Republican majority for 12 years. We have never had a conservative majority. We have 25 Republicans in the Northeast who’ll side with the Democrats on spending issues every time. We saw that it took us a long time to pass our budget - we passed it by one or two votes this year because our moderates wanted us to increase spending as much as the Senate did. So we have had a really difficult time.

When you’re in the majority, you have to pass spending bills to keep the government from shutting down, and you have to make those compromises. I spent 16 years voting for people in the minority - 14 years in Georgia and the first two years in Washington. That’s the easiest thing in the world - you just vote no and go home. When you’re in the majority, you’ve got to pass the bills. I’ve cast more miserable votes in the last 13 and a half years that I did in the previous 16.

You’ve been married to your wife, Lynne, for more than 40 years. How did you meet her?

That’s a long story. I’d finished playing a county-league softball game on July 16th of 1963. My brother and I were standing on a corner having an ice-cream soda when this car pulls up, asking for directions to Cedarwild Lodge in Minnesota. It was a town of 800 people and it’s hard to get lost and we thought, “That’s kind of cool, let’s go out to the lodge.” So we asked why she was in town and she said she’d just dyed her friend’s hair and it had turned blue, so she was sent to town to get another dye to try to fix the problem. So I said to my brother, “Wouldn’t you like to see the gal with blue hair?” So we drove out to Cedarwild Lodge, said we wanted to see the gal with blue hair and was introduced to my wife who, at the time, was quite angry about her blue hair. And three months later we were married. That was 43 years ago this year.

What’s the most frustrating part of a congressman’s job?

Inertia. Alan Greenspan told me that the toughest job is to overcome the inertia in this town. You get set in your ways, just go along step-by-step. My guess is that part of my problem in getting this bill moving is that 90 percent of the Congress has not even looked at it and doesn’t even know it’s there. Just to get them to think, "This is possible, this is do-able, the American people are ready for this," is very frustrating. We tend to get so occupied in doing what we must do that we don’t have time to do what we should do. And that’s frustrating.

As you look back not only on your political life but your personal life are there people that stand out in your mind that made a real impact on you?

One who really moved me was Ronald Reagan. I spent more time with him than with any president. I traveled on his campaign plane in 1976 whenever he was in the Southeast. Every time I’d see him he’d forget who I was. But he knew who he was. I’ll take the guy who doesn’t know me but knows himself any day.

If every state had congressmen like John Linder, this country would run smooth as glass, and there would be a no-nonsense way in dealing with any obstacle that comes our way. It would be a good idea to not only read this partial transcript in the article, and here, but also leave your feedback because I’m sure it will be passed along to Mr. Linder.

Again…. why doesn’t this man run for President? I’d definitely vote for him. And, Herman Cain as Vice President! Oh, yeah, and Neal Boortz could be in charge of Homeland Security. Look out U.N., Human Rights Watch, ACLU, and all the other bleeding-heart, international law-loving, peace-at-any-price crowd idiots! You all would be in for quite a surprise. HAHAHA!

If you don’t want to listen to it on my blog, you can download the full MP3 for podcast. Whichever way you choose, I urge you to listen intently to the entire interview… then you tell ME that John Linder isn’t someone you’d like to have in the White House soon!?!? Talk about flying under the radar! Well, my radar is up, and Linder is on it - I’m going to urge him to fly like the eagle he is!

Listen to the interview here.

The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to join us, please e-mail Terry or Jonathan. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.