Is Huckabee's fair tax really fair?

Do rich people really buy enough taxable items to pay what we currently get from their income tax?

:shrug:

Okay, I really don't know how to answer your question. Except, back when I read it, it seemed to make more sense if there was no national debt to contend with. That and it taxes consumption, of which seems bizarre as our economy is based on a recursive pattern of production and consumption.

Rich people don't consume the way the "lower" classes do. They would put their money back in the system expecting more...just like now.

Why the typical Republican Orwellian label? Why don't they just call it a national sales tax instead of trying to put lipstick on it? The answer is, it's just another regressive scheme to enrich the affluent at everyone else's cost.

It's not just Huckabee's plan BTW but I'm going to guess you already know that.

that higher-income/wealthier folk did not pay less, that did not put more relative burden on the vanishing middle-class. :D

The wealthy who support this tax will always find a way around it. Again, it would be the lower and middle classes who pay the most under this tax scheme.

In America today lower income folk are spending MORE than their income to live (Negative savings rate) and therefore would be taxed above their income at 23%!
Rich folk spend a smaller percent of their income and save or invest the rest, which would go completely untaxed.
It is the most unfair of any tax.

is that a national sales tax does not eliminate existing STATE and local sales taxes. So you end up looking at anywhere from 40% to 63% tax on EVERYTHING you buy and every service you contract for.

They even call rescinding a tax a "tax increase". So do some Dems, but the world is made up of all types...

In theory, it'd pay back the debt more quickly, but as has been said, the rich don't spend the way everyone else does and if nobody has jobs, it's not going to do any good either.

edit: Typo

The sales tax would have to be a whopping 30%. If you want to kill what's left of the consumer economy, try that one. Imagine paying an extra 30% on a house or car. New cars would sit on the lot until they were 3 years old and had to be sold as used. Owing one's own house would be totally out of reach. Even the rich would have to stop acquiring pleasure palaces.

The national sales tax is the stupidest idea out there.

The only taxation system that has ever made any real sense is the progressive income tax. This time, we need to tie it to the median wage instead of to a fixed dollar amount so it can change during periods of inflation or deflation.