National Sales Tax

If further evidence were required that Republican lawmakers are hellbent on making the rich richer and the poor poorer, consider that the GOP is reintroducing the National Sales Tax.  These means the abolition of all federal and state income taxes, the inheritance tax, gift taxes, etc., to be replaced by a single tax on all purchases.  Experts believe that a national sales tax of 23% would be revenue-neutral.

This offers the advantage of ending all the expense of record-keeping and the tax return preparation. But as anyone can see, it disproportionately taxes the poor.  Suppose Person A makes $5 million per year, which is 100 times more than Person B makes at $50,000 (and 250 times more than a retiree living on $20,000).

Do you suppose that Person A spends 100 times more than Person B on gasoline, food, cars, clothes, and other living expenses? Of course not.  The richer you are, the less you pay, and vice versa.  It would raise the tax burden for 90% of taxpayers.

OK, so now Republicans need a misleading name to sell this to the American people.  How about “FairTax?”