Mike Huckabee on Fox News Sunday (VIDEO)
Today on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee, running for the 2008 presidency on the Republican ticket. I was impressed by Huckabee at the Fox GOP debates, and the more and more I hear from him, the more I like him. Especially on his support for the Fair Tax.
Here’s a portion of the transcript:
WALLACE: Let’s start with one of the centerpieces of your campaign. You say you want to put the IRS out of business and to replace the income tax with a national sales tax, which you call a fair tax. How would that work?
HUCKABEE: It works primarily by replacing the current very complicated tax structure, that is not only burdensome but is extremely expensive — and it’s also filled with hidden ways in which Americans pay tax and never think about it.
I’d love to say April 15th become just another beautiful spring day. I’d like to be the president that nails the going-out-of- business sign on the Internal Revenue Service doors, a $10 billion a year industry.
We spend half a trillion dollars on compliance, and the real issue is that many folks at the bottom of the economic scale — they don’t have 35,000 lobbyists in Washington working for them like other people do, working over 535 members of Congress.
Here’s how the fair tax works. You get rid of income tax. You get rid of all the withholding. You get rid of corporate taxes completely, totally, because those taxes are not really paid by the corporations. They’re passed on to the customer with a 22 percent embedded tax in the system.
You eliminate that, which means the prices of what you purchase will go down. You replace it with a 23 percent consumption tax. Now, that sounds expensive, but here’s what happens. You only pay when you purchase something new, whether it’s a product or it’s a service.
And the point is it’s a completely transparent tax system. It doesn’t increase taxes. It’s revenue neutral. But here’s what it will do. It will bring business back to the United States that’s leaving our shores because our tax laws make it impossible for an American-based business to compete.
I also like what he has to say about Fred Thompson and the GOP gallery in general:
HUCKABEE: Fred Thompson certainly will have a real presence in the race. You know, and I don’t know enough about his record in terms of the issues but, you know, I think any of us who are running have to recognize that there’s going to be room even for more than the 10 who are already on the stage.
Now, I can go for a Thompson/Huckabee ticket 100%! That’s got a real nice ring to me.
Watch the interview here.
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May 27th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Thanks for your kind remarks about Mike Huckabee. I’ve linked you up.
BSR
May 28th, 2007 at 1:10 am
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May 28th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
OMG, Huckabee is such a whore! You guys have some slim pickin’ if you’re so easily swayed by the bunch of GOP contenders out there.
May 28th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Then I guess you’re a fan of the IRS, MORION? He scores major points from me because of his support for the Fair Tax. Guess you like reading the 64,000-page tax code!
May 29th, 2007 at 2:41 am
The Fair Tax will never get passed. I admire Huckabee’s desire to fix a pretty messed up system but Congress would never vote to eliminate the current April 15th system. Think of all the IRS employees, private tax corporations (H&R Block, etc.)and various tax experts in all private fields who will suddenly see their jobs become obsolete. That’s a lot of constituency.
Economists who have studied the Fair Tax system believe that American industry could be suppressed under it. I’ll try to find some of the articles in the Economist I’ve read, but one of the basic ideas is that under the Fair Tax there would be more incentive to buy used cars, which would not be subject to the tax. More used cars would mean less new cars, which would mean less tax revenue and more unemployment. I’m not saying Fair Tax is a bad idea, its pretty revolutionary, but there will be some problems in its application.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Roberto,
If anything, I’d think the Fair Tax would cause American industry to flourish. It wouldn’t have to pay taxes on items shipped overseas! The only tax would be foreign, not American.
I wouldn’t rule out Huckabee passing the fair tax either. He did some pretty amazing things as the Governor of Arkansas with a heavily Democratic state legislature.
If anybody can pull it off and revolutionize not just the tax system, but the economy as well, it would be Governor Huckabee.
-Kevin
http://www.ktracy.com
May 29th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Huckabee is sopt on ! The FairTax Act would cause production to boom. I wish more peopple were knew basic economics.
Production = (Labor x Capital) Remove the tax drag on labor and capital and production takes off, Just like removing the emergency brake.
So far, of the people I have talked to about the FairTax , the only people who hate it are career politicians, lobbyists, tax lawyers, tax accountants, the non working rich, IRS agents, and illegal aliens. Only those who have something to lose from the removal of the income tax hate it.
May 29th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Roberto
“The Fair Tax will never get passed.”
They once said women will never vote, black will never vote, man will never fly.
So far, of the people I have talked to about the FairTax , the only people who hate it are career politicians, lobbyists, tax lawyers, tax accountants, the non working rich, IRS agents, and illegal aliens. Only those who have something to lose from the removal of the income tax hate it.
Most economist i have read are all for the FairTax, in fact it was their idea in the first place.
An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people Concerning Reform of the Federal Tax Code… signed by
Donald L. Alexander
Professor of Economics
Western Michigan University
Wayne Angell
Angell Economics
Jim Araji
Professor of Agricultural
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University of Idaho
Ray Ball
Graduate School of Business
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Southern Illinois University,
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John J. Bethune
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Barton College
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Louisiana State University
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Valencia College
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Louisiana State University
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University of Nebraska at
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Eleanor D. Craig
Economics Department
University of Delaware
Susan Dadres, Ph.D.
Department of Economics
Southern Methodist University
Henry Demmert
Santa Clara University
Arthur De Vany
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University of California, Irvine
Pradeep Dubey
Leading Professor
Center for Game Theory
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SUNY at Stony Brook
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William Paterson University of
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University of Central Florida
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Central Methodist University
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University of Memphis
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Summit College
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University of Colorado
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Foundation for Economic
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Davenport Institute for Public
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Virginia Tech
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University of Missouri
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Strategy
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Central Missouri State
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University of North Carolina-
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May 29th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I think FAIR TAX is a great Idea and the time has come to move foreward and get rid of the current system.
However,when the day come, we have to make sure we introduce a National Sale Tax, not an Added Value Tax, which is most comun in Europe, where it is used to create Employment, with an enourmous buraucracy and a drag on the economy.
Yours Truly
Tore Wessel-Daae
May 29th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
GO RON PAUL!
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:09 am
The FairTax is so important to get this Country out of tax law Insanity.
The best part about it is that both Liberals and Conservatives can support it.
Devil’s Advocate
http://copiousdissent.blogspot.com
June 20th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
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August 14th, 2007 at 9:38 am
You can never really get rid of IRS agents because you still need someone to collect those sales taxes and send out those monthly checks that everyone will get.