And speaking of my local newspaper...
Jun. 1st, 2008 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatcrazycajunThis column by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's own Jay Bookman puts the final nail in the coffin of the soi-disant "FairTax" which right-wing local radio blowhard Neal Boortz and others have done so much to ballyhoo. (Boortz has even gone so far as to co-author a second book with the bill's chief sponsor which purports to debunk the criticisms leveled at the proposal by Bookman and others.)
As Bookman points out, even with the better part of a decade under Republican leadership, Congress has never even let this thing out of subcommittee. That a Democrat-led Congress (which is likely to become even more so this fall, when one-third of the Senate and all of the House must again face GOP-weary voters) will be even less willing to entertain this colossally boneheaded notion is reassuring to me in the face of the continuing bloviation from the right on the subject. And the fact that it does continue nonetheless reinforces my long-held suspicion that, deep down, most conservatives really consider taxation of any sort to be government theft of their hard-earned dollars. (Unless, of course, we're talking defense appropriations, for which not even the sky is the limit as far as they're concerned, as proved by the perpetual funding of space-based missile defense AKA SDI/"Star Wars.")
As Bookman points out, even with the better part of a decade under Republican leadership, Congress has never even let this thing out of subcommittee. That a Democrat-led Congress (which is likely to become even more so this fall, when one-third of the Senate and all of the House must again face GOP-weary voters) will be even less willing to entertain this colossally boneheaded notion is reassuring to me in the face of the continuing bloviation from the right on the subject. And the fact that it does continue nonetheless reinforces my long-held suspicion that, deep down, most conservatives really consider taxation of any sort to be government theft of their hard-earned dollars. (Unless, of course, we're talking defense appropriations, for which not even the sky is the limit as far as they're concerned, as proved by the perpetual funding of space-based missile defense AKA SDI/"Star Wars.")
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Date: 2008-06-01 08:53 pm (UTC)Excellent point. I've always thought that tax returns should be placed in a drop box... right in front of the voting booth.