Letter on the X-tax

Dear Mr, Hassett

This is a reply to your statement about the so-called X-tax: "The X-tax is a brilliant redesign of the famous flat tax that delivers most of the economic benefit of the tax, while allowing policy makers to maintain the progressivity currently in the code."

This notion of progessivity is another word for big brother controlling the economic behavior of it's citizenry. I am a free man, sir, and vehemently resent the intrusion of the Federal government into my personal finances.

For this reason, I support the FairTax. It frees us from the leash that the government has on us by taxing us only on what we spend, not what we make. In this way, those who do not participate in the income tax system (except by virtue that the cost of the tax system is imbedded in the cost of domestically produced goods and services), will now be required to pay tax in the same manner as the rest of us
(I'm speaking of those who participate in the under ground economy).

The notion of some that the FairTax may be regressive is brought on by it's transparency. The income tax is regressive as it is non-transparent. It targets middle-income earners, while taxing lower income earners who can afford to be taxed the least of all. Further, because the cost of the tax is included in the goods and services that are consumed, the wage earners are in effect taxed twice, once
on their wages and twice when they spend their wages on domestic items. This insidiously hidden double tax mechanism, in my view, is the only reason why it has been tolerated for so long by America.

The FairTax releases the Federal government's burden on lower wage earners by 1) Giving them a prebate for the tax paid on necessities and 2) releasing them from the FICA tax that is taken out of their wages.

I strongly recommend that you visit the FairTax website and study the proposal at www.fairtax.org

Very Truly Yours

Robert L. Nathan Jr.