[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                FAIR TAX

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                        HON. HENRY E. BROWN, JR.

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 17, 2009

  Mr. BROWN of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight 
a unique and innovative economic stimulus proposal that doesn't rely on 
large amounts of government spending, borrowing from foreign 
governments, or rebate checks. Instead, the Fair Tax would be a 
permanent economic stimulus that would have none of the transparency 
issues of conventional spending, or of the current tax code under the 
IRS. As a co-sponsor of H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act, I believe that 
simplification of the 45,000 page tax code will empower the American 
people through returning their earned spending power to them, and by 
reducing government spending.
  The Fair Tax replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with 
a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no 
American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, 
dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion 
legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment. It abolishes all federal 
personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, 
alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment 
taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales 
tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.
  As April 15th approaches, imagine this: no tax forms to wade through, 
no worries about deductions, withholding, or underpayment, and no 
payroll tax. Instead you, just like every American, would have more 
take-home income that could be put towards things like mortgage bills, 
thereby addressing one of the root causes of this economic crisis.
  I hope that in the future we will consider such innovative proposals 
as the Fair Tax, and I thank my colleagues Rep. John Linder from 
Georgia who has done so much to publicize the idea of the Fair Tax, and 
Rep. Steve King of Iowa who called this Special Order.
  Madam Speaker, we can do something better than haphazard spending to 
get us out of this economic mess. We can simplify a tax code that 
destroys wealth, and replace it with one that lets Americans keep their 
entire paycheck. It's time for new solutions, and not more of the old 
tax and spend.

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