Oh, sure. Another one of those "common sense" proposals that aren't sensible at all. Even Steve Forbes knows it's a terrible idea. But it's a floor vote Kevin McCarthy promised Rep. Buddy Carter (GA) to get another vote for speaker. Via Forbes:
New Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has proposed a vote on a proposal called the Fair Tax, which would abolish the current federal income tax and replace it with a 30% national sales tax. Payroll taxes, which finance Social Security and Medicare, would also get axed.The IRS would go. States would collect the sales levy and remit proceeds to Washington.
Unfortunately, as this segment of What’s Ahead discusses, the Fair Tax has serious problems. Right out of the gate, the big one is political. How, particularly in these inflationary times, are voters going to react to paying a 30% sales tax on what they buy? A typical new house would cost an additional $125,000, not to mention the thousands of extra dollars people would pay for food, fuel, electricity and countless other items.
Proponents say incomes would go up because Federal levies on earnings would disappear, but since that wouldn’t make most people whole, the Fair Tax would pay a rebate each month to every household to help pay for necessities. That idea poses challenges.
Yeah, you could say that.
There is not a snowball's chance in hell of this passing, of course. But this is what the Freedumb Caucus members think is a brilliant idea.
President Joe Biden attacked the proposal during a speech on Monday. “National sales tax, that’s a great idea. It would raise taxes on the middle class by taxing thousands of everyday items, from groceries to gas, while cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans,” he said.
