From: roger-orientamericanore@juno.com <roger-orientamericanore@juno.com>
Date: Sat, May 31, 2014 at 12:58 PM
Subject: A major win in Florida!
To: roger.buchholtz@mifairtax.org
MI Thought Leaders & MI FairTax Core 100,
I am embarrassed for Michigan. Several years ago the Michigan FairTax Association and key legislators presented the FairTax and MI FairTax to both the Michigan House and Senate who took no action. Now the legislatures in many states, like Florida in the article below, are actively advocating real tax reform.
Apparently Michigan's political leaders are content to nibble away at state and national tax reform. While our competitive position with other states has improved due to recent improvements in tax and regulation policy, our state is part of a nation that is falling further behind foreign competition. In addition, the accelerating sale of tax favors by our political "leaders" to the lobbyists of special interests has so corrupted our representative form of government that our government is no longer "of, by and for the people". Our government is out of control, as has been clearly demonstrated by the VA scandal, and IRS abuse of citizens and groups.
The right tax system will make the people's true tax burden readily apparent to them, rather than hidden in prices of the things they buy. Only when people are aware of what they are paying in taxes are they equipped to exert control over their level of taxation. Our Founding Fathers were aware of the dangers of income type taxes and that is why income type taxes were thrice prohibited in the Constitution.
The FairTax is 100% visible on every sales receipt, it will save taxpayers over $1 trillion annually (this amounts to $3,300 / year for every U.S. resident) in tax compliance and efficiency costs, and will give America the most favorable business tax environment in the world. For the first time in generations we will be able to compete with the rest of the world on a level playing field, as the 20% competitive disadvantage (caused by embedding taxes in our prices) will be eliminated.
The FairTax will be the granddaddy of all stimulus plans, and it will be permanent. It will grow our economy via productivity, rather than the printing of money, and we will soon see that our balance of payments, national debt, unfunded liabilities, retirement fund shortfalls and personal debt problems will be solved.
The timidity of our political leaders typically stems from their desire to remain in office as long as possible and they believe that if they don't lead they will not be opposed. The sad truth is that we suffer from this lack of leadership, yet the public clamors for leaders that stand for something. In fact, standing for the FairTax has been shown to be a powerful vote getter. Following the 2010 election cycle a study was done to evaluate how candidates fared based upon their FairTax position. This study is summarized below:
FairTax Impact on November, 2010 Elections
Just how did candidates that supported the national FairTax proposal do across the country?
Amazingly well!
Of the 435 races for the House, 114 of them involved candidates expressing some level of support for the FairTax. One race, OH07, had two FairTax supporters, so keep that in mind as it throws totals off by one in some cases, so we will use 113 "real" races.
Of the 114 candidates, there were 2 Independents, and 112 Republicans.
Of the 113 races, 64 FairTax candidates were Incumbents and 49 were Challengers.
Of the 113 races, the FairTax was a significant issue in 30 of the races; 1 FairTax candidate was an Incumbent, and 29 FairTax candidates were Challengers.
The Incumbent won his race for 100% success rate.
In the 29 Challenger races, 17 were won by the FairTax candidate for a 58.6% success rate overall.
Of the 29 races, there were 13 where the FairTax was defended either by the Grassroots or the Challenger. Of that 13, 11 were won, for an 84.6% success rate.
In the 16 races where neither the Challenger nor Grassroots provided significant defense, 6 were won by the FairTax Challenger, for a 37.5% success rate.
To put the above 84.6% and 37.5% success rates into perspective, in the November, 2010 election, Democrats (none of which were publicly advocating the FairTax) had to defend 252 seats. Republicans won 65 seats against Democrat Incumbents for an overall success rate of 25.8%.
Contrary to "conventional wisdom" Democrats attacked on FairTax issue only when in trouble. In most of the House races against FairTax candidates, Democrats did not try to use the FairTax as an issue (83 races out of 113). When they did use it, they experienced results that were, on average, worse than their counterparts who did not use misrepresentations of the FairTax to attack their opponent.
Overall, Republican Challengers won 25.8% of their races in this election cycle, but if the FairTax was used as an issue, Republican Challengers won 58.6% of the races.
In cases where the FairTax candidate was challenged on the FairTax issue, but failed to respond, they still experienced a benefit. Passive FairTax candidates won 37.5% of their races, compared to the national Republican metric of 25.8%. So, just being identified as a supporter of the FairTax, even when the opponent controlled the debate, resulted in a 11.7% improvement in the success rate.
In cases where the FairTax candidate and/or the grassroots responded aggressively to the FairTax challenge, the success rate for Republican FairTax candidates jumped to an astonishing 84.6% success rate. This demonstrates that making the FairTax an issue, and aggressively promoting it, results in a nearly 50 percentage point advantage over passively favoring the FairTax.
Compared to Republicans who were not identified as supporters of the FairTax those aggressively promoting and defending it enjoyed a 58.8% advantage.
The conclusion is clear: The more that the public hears about the FairTax the more they like it and will support advocates of the proposal. FairTax candidates are much more likely to be elected, and candidates that adopt the FairTax as a key plank in their political platform and aggressively promote it are far more likely to win than those that are less enthusiastic in their support of the FairTax.
Below is an article about how the Florida legislature has passed legislation endorsing the FairTax. It is time for Michigan to lead by endorsing the national FairTax and adopting the Michigan FairTax.
Roger
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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.
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