I haven’t seen as much misinformation in a short article as that provided by Sidney Vaught in his July 9-15 piece, “Tea Party Unsuccessful and Misleading.” He took on Roanoke Tea Party (RTP) and the FairTax, misrepresenting both along the way.
I am a member of RTP and a supporter of the FairTax so I know both rather well. Although individual members of RTP support the FairTax, RTP as a body has not endorsed it, thus dispelling all the horrors Vaught attributed to that imagined connection. What RTP does support with vigor is the election of legislators who believe in and abide by the U.S. Constitution. How this could lead to “destroying democracy and creating a new type of dictatorship or even communism” is beyond me. A simple look at the policies of the Obama Administration, which the RTP generally oppose, puts the lie to that charge. He equates promoting the election of Constitution-abiders to “throwing yourself into the proverbial estuary of sewage without a paddle.” In Vaught’s view we celebrate July 4th as the day the Founders created a sewer. Some sewer!
Vaught’s description of the FairTax proposal is more mystifying and I urge him to read “The FairTax Book” by Neal Boortz. Vaught complains that “the consumer will end up paying all taxes for goods and big business … will end up getting richer.” The book will tell him that consumers already pay those taxes in the prices they pay because what businesses have to pay is simply rolled down to the ultimate consumer. The FairTax eliminates these and all other income taxes in favor of a consumption tax.
The provision of freedom from federal taxes for the poor, and reduced rates for the middle class, under the FairTax flies in the face of Vaught’s claim that it “stand(s) on the backs of the poor and middle class,… thus casting the middle class into the poverty levels of the poor.” As to the rich, they love to spend and they will pay the full tax.
Donald Koop, Roanoke
