Campaign 2008: The Huckabee FairTax Conversion

Posted December 19, 2007

"I have to admit that the Fair Tax certainly sounds good. After all, it taxes consumption, not income. You don't pay it if you don't spend." — J. Christoph Amberger

by J. Christoph Amberger

Baltimore — (TFN):Congratulations, Mrs. Huckabee. It's a Boy! The man the good people of Little Rock, Arkansas, came to love as Tax-Hike Mike has been born again. (Or, in the case of an ordained Southern Baptist minister, would that have to be "born again and again"?)

Freshly washed — or maybe laundered – in the blood of the campaign gods' sacrificial lamb, GOP presidential hopeful and current front runner Mike Huckabee has shuffled off his previous political coil as a nominally Republican tax-and-spender of the old Democrat school.

His new and improved self has discovered the FairTax — a national sales tax that is supposed to do away with income taxes and IRS in one fell swoop.

Are you busy working and would rather listen to this, spoken with a German accent? Well, just click here!

We may have just witnessed a Pauline conversion: It's like Al Gore taking the bus to work, instead of a limousine convoy. After all, Huckabee loved to raise taxes. He increased the sales tax. He hiked the corporate income tax; imposed income-tax surcharges on individuals and corporations. He increased taxes on gas and diesel fuel, snuff, cigarettes, mixed drinks, private clubs and retail sales of beer; levied taxes on Internet access and hospital beds.

In fact there hasn't been a tax he hasn't voted for — before voting against it.

Conversion on the Road to DC

We don't quite know whose light he saw that caused him to fall off his ass and on the same on the road to Damascus. But even I have to admit that the Fair Tax certainly sounds good. After all, it taxes consumption, not income. You don't pay it if you don't spend. A 23 percent rate would be enough to replace current revenues, FairTaxers claim. So if you grow your own food, heal your own malaises, and commute to work sitting next to Al Gore on the city bus, you'd be rich as Croesus in no time.

Then again, home buyers would pay a 25 percent tax on their homes. And on cars. Tuition. Medical expenses. With no tax deductions. In fact, given Americans' proclivity to spend more than they earn, it would be possible to pay more taxes than you'd pay even under the Obama-Clinton-Pelosi plan. In theory, if you spend enough, you'd be able to pay more money in taxes than you earn.

Of course, a national sales tax of 23% or more is not unheard of. Germany, France, and most of Europe have successfully choked off domestic demand with similar "value-added" taxes. (To be fair, they charge them IN ADDITION to income taxes.)

Financial Cure-all

There is another European touch to the concept. European GDP statistics like to include wealth redistributed to welfare recipients as wealth created. It limits the chances to end up with negative growth in years with high unemployment. Equally, if the Fair Tax is attached to government purchases, the best way for the government to increase revenues would be by increasing spending. Increase the FairTax to over 50%, and the government would actually be making money by spending money.

Sounds like a miracle solution worthy of two previous presidents of the same religious persuasion.

But I said it before and I'm saying it again: I believe a US president by the name of Huckabee is as undesirable as one called Amberger.

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