FairTax Friday~This Year's Thanks, Next Year's Preparation

"A person with the facts is never at the mercy of someone with just an opinion." - Unknown Weekly Feature     In a nation like the one we are blessed to be a part of, we always have reasons to be thankful. Regardless of how FairTax supporters feel about a number of issues outside of tax reform, the United States is the country in which we've all chosen to build our lives in and advance our future. Even though we have tremendous challenges ahead and are in the middle of trying times, people all over the world still desire to be a part of the American dream - our city on a hill.     This has also been a very good year for the FairTax movement. The new FAST board (FairTax America Support Team) united our dedicated grassroots leaders around a common goal of passing the FairTax by 2013. The elections saw not one co-sponsor from the Republican or Democratic side be defeated and many more FairTax going to Washington for the first time. More Americans have heard about the FairTax than ever before and it seems the media are finally beginning to understand our cause. Just in the last couple of weeks the FairTax has been discussed at length three different times on TV and print media appearances are increasing as well. We wish you a wonderful, safe beginning to the holiday season as we prepare for the coming year of our campaign. Grassroots Spotlight: Volunteers      Bob Burt is a tireless volunteer leader in Michigan who talks FairTax to everyone he comes across. He goes anywhere and everywhere to promote the FairTax and drives his minivan - covered in FairTax promotions - to every event in the state where he can help. Bob also uses non-traditional methods to spread the word about true tax reform like entering contests and using them as a platform to spread the message of transformational tax reform. He's a great example of how a motivated person can influence thousands of people around him and move a cause forward. Thank you Bob! Is someone your FairTax inspiration? Nominate a volunteer to be in the spotlight by sending an email to info@fairtax.org with "Grassroots Spotlight" in the subject line. --- In last week's newsletter we incorrectly stated Doug Friedrichsen's state. He volunteers in Kansas. We regret our error. --- FairTax in the News Deficit Puzzle: Where's the Fair Tax? - NewYorkTimes.com  ...Among the common reader questions I didn't address in the article were these three:  ...Why didn't we include the Fair Tax?  The Fair Tax, as one of the Web sites promoting it explains, would replace "all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax." We did include a national sales tax, but a much smaller one — one that would not raise nearly enough to replace the income tax. As I mentioned in this post, political viability was one factor in our decisions about what to include. Right now, the Fair Tax just does not garner much support from either Republicans or Democrats, in Congress or in other parts of government... The Tax Code is the Key: Bring the FairTax to the Floor - HumanEvents.com ...In election cycles before 2010, opponents of the FairTax have been able to use candidates' support of the FairTax against them successfully. In 2010, that wasn't the case: In the races in which Democrats ran ads demonizing their Republican opponents' support of the FairTax, the ads didn't succeed... It's clear that Congressman-Elect Rob Woodall will be the standard bearer in the new Congress. He says the discussions have started with leadership on the FairTax... Woodall continued, "There has been a sense in the past that if you bring the FairTax to the floor and it fails, that it's somehow bad for the FairTax. I'm taking a different message up this year, which is, we need to vote on the FairTax. We need to understand where folks are, and failing to get a majority is not failure. That just tells you where it is you have to concentrate your efforts going forward." Woodall believe that the best plan is to bring the FairTax to the floor, to get members on record, and then to assess where things stand. No more "wink and a nod" pseudo-promises. Woodall wants a list of supporters who will be accountable for following through on their earlier representations... Did You Know? Scholarly research tells us: - Real wages are 10.3 percent, 9.5 percent, and 9.2 percent higher in years 1, 10, and 25, respectively than would otherwise be the case.  [3] - Disposable personal income is higher than if the current tax system remains in place:  1.7 percent in year 1, 8.7 percent in year 5, and 11.8 percent in year 10.  [4] - The economy as measured by GDP is 2.4 percent higher in the first year and 11.3 percent higher by the 10th year than it would otherwise be.  [4] - Over time, the FairTax benefits all income groups.  Of 42 household types (classified by income, marital status, age), all have lower average remaining lifetime tax rates under the FairTax than they would experience under the current tax system. [5] - Implementing the FairTax at a 23 percent rate gives the poorest members of the generation born in 1990 a 13.5 percent improvement in economic well-being; their middle class and rich contemporaries experience a 5 percent and 2 percent improvement, respectively.  [6] - Based on standard measures of tax burden, the FairTax is more progressive than the individual income tax, payroll tax, and the corporate income tax.  [7] - Charitable giving increases by $2.1 billion (about 1 percent) in the first year over what it would be if the current system remained in place, by 2.4 percent in year 10, and by 5 percent in year 20.  [8] - The FairTax provides the equivalent of a supercharged mortgage interest deduction, reducing the true cost of buying a home by 19 percent.  [10]  | Contact Us Americans for Fair Taxation, Essex Lane Suite #328, Houston, Texas 77027 1-877-FAIRTAX (324-7829) Paid for by Americans for Fair Taxation Americans For Fair Taxation is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. 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If everyone knew all there is to know, they would not do half the things they do, including myself, therefore I must foregive them, including myself.