Target no one. Consumption tax. Them that consumes, pays. Who consumes the most? Rich folks. 'Cuz they can. No loopholes in it. Warp it so's the poor don't pay anything. Perfect.

Funny thing, US manufacturers getting out from under the massive burdens of the US income taxes are expected to lower their prices to the point that the eventual retail sales price with the FairTax will be approximately what it was before the FairTax and under the income taxes. Only foreign manufactured things, that aren't paying US income taxes in the process of their manufacturing operations outside the USA will experience a price increase of about 30%.

About 80% of our retail spending is done in about 10% of all retailers, those being the big franchises like Walmart, Target, etc. Good luck getting all your purchases during the year out the door without them charging you the FairTax.

An expensive item bought outside the country is not exempt from the FairTax. Asking google, this response was received:

"Yes, according to H.R.25, the proposed FairTax Act, items imported into the US from outside the country would be subject to the 23% national sales tax. This applies to retail international purchases like boats or cars. The tax would be collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

"Sure. Cut personal income taxes to make the masses happy and hope nobody notices the national debt going through the roof."

Revenue to the government went UP after that tax cut, look it up. The truth is that the income taxes act as a huge millstone around the necks of all our businesses. Abolishing them with something like the FairTax that totally untaxes businesses would put rocket engines on our economy, and should be done ASAP. It would be like subsidizing all our businesses.

You can live well above the poverty line and not pay FairTax. Buy a used / existing house, buy a used car, buy a used cell phone, invest your money, use it for tuition (an investment in yourself) and you can be 100% (fair)tax-free. FT is only on NEW items for sale at retail and services spent above the poverty line.

The last time he cut taxes my personal income tax went down $1,500 / yr. I'm nowhere near rich, so excuse me if I don't hyperventilate over this just yet.

"national sales tax"

The most viable and studied such tax is a luxury tax. It has no "burden", since nobody _has_ to pay it unless they WANT to buy a luxury item. Luxury items are new items for sale at retail (read not wholesale, not used) or services (hey, do it yourself and pay no tax) bought above a person's personal poverty level. But basic necessities - food, clothing, shelter - can be had without spending in the luxury level of spending, so anyone that cares to, can go thru life without paying a dime of this luxury tax. It's called the FairTax, and would be an insanely-better alternative to the income taxes - personal, corporate, capital gains, payroll, self-employment, gift, estate - that it _replaces._

After having been run off the road 3 times on one summer on I-79 IN ohio, w. Virginia, and Indiana, its hard to imagine the robots doing a worse job. We need robots with cameras all around and lacking the apparent limitations of human drivers that don't look before changing lanes, Watching videos of trucks on Facebook, we can hope for a lack of combative attitude exhibited by drivers in said videos. It's not a war, its cooperative sharing of highways, except for a lot of truckers on Facebook that think they're driving a tank.

"Where did this quote come from?"

Post #1965658. The above was in response to it.

" 60% of typical community greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation."

Quick google search says:

"In the United States, transportation accounts for about 28% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This makes it the largest contributor of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Within the transportation sector, a significant portion comes from the combustion of fossil fuels in various modes of transportation. "

Asking google about worldwide greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector yields:

"The transportation sector contributes roughly 14% to 29% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, depending on the specific data source and methodology used. For example, road vehicles alone account for 12% of global GHG emissions. Emissions from the transportation sector primarily stem from the burning of fossil fuels for various modes of transport. "

Soooo... no... not even close...

Not only should there not be zero military, there should not be a diminished military. We already do not have hypersonic missiles or the ability to shoot down adversary's hypersonic missiles, but the adversaries are making large increases to their military, esp. China's Navy, so our military should actually be increased in funding for research and development, while continuing to fund deployment, maintenance, etc.

It's hard to keep the military abreast of the state of the art when every time we get a Democratic administration, they gut the military of support, so you get things like our forces going into Afghanistan and Iraq with unarmored Humvee's, because the Clinton administration didn't want to pay for that. It cost a lot of US military lives, and again the reason that I'm sick of people always picking on the military as if it wasn't important. As long as we have these pinheads around the world that want to harm Americans, such as 9/11, we need a military to stick it to them when they do that, and make it not worth their while.

"The key difference is the military is almost entirely waste, because there are no military threats to the US."

Stop and consider why. It's because all those that covet our natural resources, infrastructure, and people to possibly enslave are deterred by the US military and their nuclear arsenal.

And of course it really isn't true. China, Russia, and Iran are military threats, and terrorist organizations around the globe are all threats that require a military to oppose if we want to live in relative safety.

Not equating anything. Just tired of everyone picking on the military like it's unnecessary. Walk right buy the 800 lb gorilla that is the SS and MC spending, and bitch about the military spending. Tired of it.

Its being explored, but it'd only be $80B or so, compared to the several trillion of SS and MC, and we're not cutting benefits for either of those. Might find some WF&A, but even of congress can cut $ to them, then benefits will remain the same, we just won't be funding the WF&A.

"major sign that the country is decaying"

That sign was a $36T National Debt.

It can be handled 2 ways:

1) The way we're trying to handle it, by cutting spending as much as possible without impacting our SS and MC recipients, or

2) Just let everything slide until the debt is so big we can't hope to even make the interest payments, let along the principle. Total catastrophic failure will result, the economic collapse will be total, and unlike the great depression, when a huge number of family farms made sustaining oneself possible for many, this economy that depends on just a few percent of people for all its food will experience millions of dead from starvation, as well as exposure in the winter after the electrical grid collapses, and so forth. After that, we'll still owe the money, and probably the only way out will be the total collapse of the country, with maybe 5 - 10 smaller countries springing up that will be easily conquered by foreign powers, and eventual slavery for all our descendants.

I think we should give maximum effort to what we're trying to do now.