Letter to the Editor

FairTax is the best answer

It is time to stop taxing productivity in our country.

The current income tax, payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare), capital-gains tax, inheritance tax and corporate tax are a disincentive to productivity. Productivity is the only way wealth is created. Individuals and businesses produce goods and services that benefit themselves, benefit others and create wealth.

The FairTax is the answer to this disincentive. The FairTax is a consumption-based tax that encourages saving, investment and productivity.

The FairTax bill (HR 25) before Congress, as currently written, would create a revenue-neutral consumption tax, meaning the same amount of revenue would come into the federal government as the under the current system. There would be no more income-tax withholding. Workers would keep their entire paycheck. It would eliminate all filing of individual tax returns. April 15 would be just another beautiful spring day. It would eliminate the 54,000-page, 2.8 million-word tax code. It would jump-start the economy and make the U.S. the tax haven of the world. Investment, business and jobs would flow into the U.S. rather than out. And it would be the largest transfer of power from the federal government back to the American people in history.

The FairTax has the endorsement of more than 80 professional and university economists and is gaining support nationwide. I encourage readers to go to FairTax.org or call 1-800-FairTax (324-7829) for more information and a more detailed description of this exciting proposal.

JOHN KINDER, Fruitland