[Jason Vines]

The FairTax is, in a word, revolutionary. This description possesses not a jot of hyperbole.

From Atlanta talk show host Neal Boortz and Georgia Congressman John Linder comes The FairTax Book. In it, they describe an innovative system of taxation known as, you guessed it, the FairTax. H.R. 25, the FairTax legislation, would replace income taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, corporate income taxes, death taxes, self-employment taxes, alternative minimum taxes, gift taxes, capital gains taxes, etc., with a simple retail consumption tax. That would become the only federal tax. Taxes on investment, savings, and labor would disappear. And to boot, the FairTax would preserve the federal income stream.

At first, I thougth the FairTax sounded too good to be true. But, upon reading The FairTax Book to its finish, I discovered the FairTax actually makes sense. Think: Embedded within every dollar of every price is 22 cents that pays the taxes of sellers, manufacturers, and everyone who helped finish the product and get it into your hands. The FairTax would eliminate these embedded taxes, bringing prices 22 cents down, and then add a 23 percent retail consumption tax.

"Big deal," one might say. "Things will ultimately cost the same. How does that help anything?"

The FairTax legislation would help Americans in many ways. It would eliminate the burdensome taxes I listed before, as well as the costs in time and money of ensuring you've paid them properly. It would stop tax withholding from workers' paychecks, so they could take home all of what they make. It would shut down the infernal Internal Revenue service. It would help the economy by removing taxes on capital and investment; American companies that have relocated their offices elsewhere to flee oppressive taxation would come back home. Foreign businesses would come here, too, and employ American workers, to escape taxation in their own countries. In addition, everyone who buys goods and services at the retail level, including visitors from other countries, would pay the FairTax.

With the FairTax, economic freedom would increase. Businesses wouldn't have to dedicate numerous resources to tax planning, and could instead focus on growing their companies. Also, Americans would no longer be punished for making more money or saving their cash. They would pay the same taxes as everyone else, when they choose to pay them.

Observing how the government raises its revenue would become easier, too. Politicians couldn't use tax withholding and corporate taxes to sneak tax hikes by the American people anymore. All of us could see exactly how much the federal government is taking from us, through the FairTax rate. And everyone will be paying the same FairTax amount. Therefore, if our leaders want to raise taxes, they'll have to work hard to justify it, to everyone. They couldn't hide the increase, and they couldn't exploit class rivalries.

Terminating our income tax structure in favor of a consumption tax that everyone would pay might sound harmful to the poor, but the FairTax legislation addresses that concern. Every month, all heads of household in the United States would receive a prebate to cover the tax costs of basic necessities, up to poverty line spending. (This means, your prebate would run out if you purchase more food, etc., than a poor person could buy.) When considering everyone, including poor people, will be able to take home 100 percent of their paychecks, the poor would be better off under the FairTax.

I won't convey The FairTax Book's every detail. What I'm doing, rather, is trying to stoke your interest in the FairTax with a short explanation as to why it'd be good for America. Please buy the book, thereby increasing its profile, if you want more.

I hope you will support the FairTax through Internet postings, letters to editors and congressmen, and political activism.

To visit the site of a group dedicated to the FairTax legislation's passage, click Americans for Fair Tax.

Addendum: The FairTax Book has become a Number One New York Times bestseller!