The text of the attack ad is:
"Southwestern Pennsylvania is hurting, but millionaire Tim Burns would make things even worse. Burns supports putting a 23% national sales tax on just about everything we buy. Groceries: 23% more. Gas: 23% more. Burns even wants to raise taxes on medicine. We can't afford to pay 23% more. We can't afford Tim Burns. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.
That ad represents the very worst in American politics but there is something we can do to fight back in this case. There are two newspapers in PA's 12th district. Click on each of the following links to write to the The Observer-Reporter & The Pittsburgh Post Gazette to set the record straight. To replace Murtha with a FairTax supporter is something the statists cannot tolerate while simultaneously for us it is a goal so worthy to achieve for America.
Below is my letter sent to both links:
I listened to the despicable purposely misleading DCCC add re the 23% national sales tax. Tim Burns is an advocate of the FairTax - a nonpartisan proposal that replaces all federal income & payroll taxes with a progressive tax on consumption (national retail sales tax) that includes a cash prebate that ensures no American pays federal taxes on their spending for essential goods & services like groceries, gas, & medicine. The FairTax is the biggest transfer of power from the politicians to the people since the founding of this country & that is why the DCCC lies to their constituents wanting to keep all of them down while their elites stay in power. Wake up America - the answer to unshackle America's economy & restore the atmosphere for job creation is the FairTax.
Actually, the DCCC ad understated the Fairtax rate in that it should have read the Fairtax would add 30% to the price of almost everything. (I would prefer it to say that the Fairtax would add 30% to the cost of everything which is really the case.)
ReplyDeleteThe DCCC ad is certainly guilty of ommission, and is not accurate as to the 30% rate that retail merchants have to add to their costs in order to arrive at a 23% tax inclusive price.
The ad also said that we can’t afford the Fairtax, but that claim doesn’t apply to everyone. Certain retired and minimum wage earners would see their net taxes increase under the Fairtax, but many other workers would be better off.
But, how much detail can one put in a 30 second ad?
Dutchman, in this post, is hardly being more candid with you than the DCCC. He has agreed with me in prior posts on other sites that there are offsetting factors under the FairTax tax, but he has not expounded on them. For example, the FairTax will lower pre-tax prices on goods and services by removing the built-in tax cost component. While the exact percentage varies by industry, Dutchman and I agree that this drop can generally be up to 10%. To keep prices from jumping on Day One of the FairTax, there is also an inventory credit.
ReplyDeleteThe easy way to remember this is that competition is a price ceiling; costs are a price floor. When you drop the floor, the ceiling can drop, too, in any industry where there is elasticity of demand.
Since both of us accept the premise that there can be a 10% tax cost savings due to the FairTax, nominal prices would increase, on a one-shot only basis, 17% over what they are today. But wait, most people will be relieved of income and payroll taxes and will actually have more purchasing power.
Dutchman is a retiree and is advocating for his narrow interest. Those who do so lose sight of the fact that Social Security is over $6.6 Trillion in the hole, and Medicare is over $36.3 Trillion in the hole. The hole is deepening automatically by over $2 Trillion every year nothing is done. Ask the DCCC and Dutchman what they plan to do about that.
The FairTax addresses those problems by switching Social Security and Medicare to a larger, more stable and growing tax base.
Dutchman allowed for the fact that many workers under the FairTax would be better off. He was wrong about minimum wage earners, but let's not quibble. The DCCC intentionally left that part out in order to be slick.
The DCCC, and to a lesser extent Dutchman, need to come clean and tell you the whole story.
~Jim Bennett from Summit, NJ
The attack ad certainly displays ignorance!
ReplyDelete