Note: This article was originally written in 2009 and is posted on my old website. It was a continuation of the story I wrote on it titled Fair Warning on the Fair Tax System in 2005 after listening to the hearing on it. Fair Warning on the Fair Tax System – Part II. The recordings of the hearing and the transcript of the hearing can be found on this website in an article titled, Defend Sovereignty or Lose the Future.
A couple of years ago, there was a big promotion by the ‘Free Market, Free Trade’ crowd to change the tax structure from an income tax to a national sales tax on all purchases – goods and services. The idea was packaged under the name ‘Fair Tax‘ and it was presented to the House of Representatives Committee that handles such things.
The big selling point for the Fair Tax was that it would eliminate the Internal Revenue Service. That might sound attractive but the truth is that it would just change the mission of the IRS and it would expand the size of their department by many times. Rather than auditing tax returns, they would be patrolling neighborhoods to see if you pay the sales tax that is due to the government for getting your lawn mowed. Of course they could contract out that function to a private company to put surveillance cameras in your neighborhood instead so that a monitor could watch 24/7 – under the ‘Leave No Transaction Behind’ program.
Everything about the ‘Fair Tax’ plan was misrepresented or a flat out lie – including the perfectly Orwellian name, “Fair Tax’. In the Congressional hearing, it came out that rather than 23% it was actually 30%. In the study to determine revenue neutrality with the current tax system, they cheated in the calculation to come out even – but the dollar value of the error – once fixed, would increase the tax to 50% rather than the 30%. So in exchange for completing a tax return once a year, a person would end up paying 50 cents on the dollar – for every dollar spent. It was a fabulous deal for Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the slim minority at the top of the income scale. A terrible idea for most people in this country – especially those who live on a fixed income, low wage earners, and young families.
The ‘Fair Tax’ plan was presented by Republicans to a committee chaired by a Democrat. The Democrats didn’t like the plan at all – or so it seemed. The Republican legislation for the Fair Tax would have had the entire country switch over to a national sales tax at the same time. That would have been chaos and was completely unrealistic since applying sales tax to services would be a completely new tax so a new infrastructure would have to be implemented all the way down the line – including educating the lawn guy to collect the tax and fill out the forms.
At the time, I thought that Rep. John Linder, sponsor of the Fair Tax, was just a psychopath who had eluded the white coats by hiding in the capitol and blending in. But sometime later, when I stumbled on the fact that Canada had a Goods and Services Tax, the dots connected revealing that the Fair Tax plan was a plan to harmonize the U.S. tax system with Canada and that probably the Goods and Services Tax was the chosen method for the global tax for the international system of “governance”. It makes sense from the standpoint that the people who are pursuing “global governance” represent corporate interests and their mission is to break nations. Whoever collects the tax revenues controls the government. With the Goods and Services tax, that power belongs to the corporations who sell the most. It’s a perfect way to disempower government of the people while empowering government by corporations and their fascist system of global control.
Goods and Services Taxes
The Goods and Services Tax was implemented in Canada in 1991. The following is a list countries that have converted to a Goods and Services Tax. It’s important to note that it’s the infrastructure of the tax that is important – not the rates and not the exclusions. Once the infrastructure for collection is in place, the rates are easily adjusted and totally out of our control.
Canada
New Zealand
Australia
Singapore
India
Hong Kong (proposed)
Malaysia (not archived) New search: Malaysia
European Union (VAT)
In the above countries – except for the European Union, the Goods and Services Tax was introduced in an honest way – naming it for what it is. In the United States, the world leader in deceptive marketing, the Goods and Services Tax was named the ‘Fair Tax’ when the republicans sponsored it. Now that the democrats are in power, implementation is being phased in by sector beginning with the energy tax included in the Cap and Trade legislation. The Cap and Trade legislation called for carbon credits which in reality are nothing more than ration coupons and revenue stamps tradable in the market. The estimates I saw had the new tax on all types of energy pegged at around 30% to be passed through to consumers.
Yesterday, an article in the New York Times introduced the idea being proposed by Blue Dog Democrats of a consumption tax on health care – to pay for Obama’s nationalized health “reform” that really isn’t Obama’s plan at all. It’s perfect. It adds up to a full package of bullsh*t since the consumption tax on health care isn’t really the idea of the Blue Dogs. It’s just the health care sector of the Fair Tax which is actually the harmonized, global Goods and Services Tax. Don’t you love it? You’ve got to read the New York Times article…. the author includes lots of political intrigue to make it exciting for the mullets who think there is really a difference between the two parties. It’s really quite funny when you know the history and the real objective.
Excerpts:
Health Care Reform and the Unpopular T-Word
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: July 28, 2009
Health costs, on the other hand, are growing much more quickly than the economy. Over the last decade, the economy has expanded by about 20 percent, and health spending has ballooned 50 percent. The gap isn’t about to start closing, either.
So no matter what Congress has done to pay for its plans, it can’t keep up.
The numbers show there is only one sure way out of the problem, and, after months of roundabout discussion, that solution has re-emerged: It’s a tax on health care.
If Congress taxes health care, the revenue has a chance of rising with health spending. A health tax will also create an incentive for workers and businesses to slow the growth of health spending — thus reducing the amount of taxes needed to pay the nation’s health bill.
…
To deal with this political reality, the Senate Finance Committee has become intrigued by a version of a health care tax, being pushed by the Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, that comes dressed up with a whole lot of lipstick. The tax doesn’t fall directly on workers. It doesn’t even fall on employers. It falls on everyone’s favorite villain: health insurance companies.
In keeping with tradition, the masters of deceptive marketing will propose taxing health insurers. The joke obviously is that they will make everybody buy insurance and the insurance companies will pass through the tax to the insured.
So now we know why the Blue Dogs got so much attention in the past couple of weeks. The script was for them to be the hero-anti-heroes by opposing the Democratic House leadership with the game plan set for them to run the ball up the middle by proposing a solution that will be acceptable to both sides of the aisle – sales tax on mandatory health insurance.
Update: a few years ago, I had a simple procedure done at the local hospital. I had Medicare insurance but no supplemental insurance policy (can’t afford it). It was the first time I used Medicare. The hospital billed Medicare and Medicare paid – but then the hospital billed me an amount in excess of the subscriber share. When I questioned the hospital about the charges, all they would tell me is that Medicare told them to bill me the extra amount, that they sent the money to Seattle but they wouldn’t tell me what the charges were for. I spent an entire day going back and forth between the hospital and Medicare trying to find out what the extra charges were (I’m like a dog with a bone on some things). They would not tell me. After re-posting this article, I realize now, the extra charges must have been a consumption tax that they made me pay directly because I didn’t have a supplemental insurance policy where the consumption tax is hidden. Mystery solved. My solution to what I perceived as collusion between Medicare and the hospital to rob me was to drop my Medicare insurance so here I am in my mid-seventies totally uninsured and I will f****** lay on the floor and die before I go back over to that hospital. The absolute evil and corruption of what we call the American government never ceases to amaze me. (Note: it’s not the American government. The American side is simply a facade. It’s “the Americas” governing structure with international operatives embedded.)
United Nations is working on a global tax treaty. While at this point, they are only talking about multinational corporations, once the harmonized goods and services tax system is in place around the world, they will apply the tax on everybody and everything. There is a hint of it in the last sentence of this article.
Don’t assume that
the Fair Tax System
is your
simple conception
of a
point-of-sale
sales tax system
like your
state sales taxes.
LISTEN TO THE HEARING IN WHICH THE FAIR TAX SYSTEM WAS DESCRIBED.
