Wednesday, April 01, 2009

The Tea Party Manifesto - One Possible Plank

Will Collier asks: "What is the Tea Party Manifesto?" He rightly points out that to date most of the Tea Party protests have been just about venting. There is no coherent message and no real proposals for what we should be doing differently. There's no agenda.

Well I have a suggestion. I've pointed out before that quibbling about what is the correct marginal tax rate under our current income tax system misses the fundamental point that the tax code is both inherently unfair and immoral to boot. If the Tea Party movement needs a rallying point, let it be the demand for a fundamental change in our tax system, one that transfers power back to where it belongs; with the people. Yes, I'm talking about the FairTax.

We need to start educating ourselves about the FairTax and then spreading the word about it as far and wide as possible. The politicians are scared to death of it. Why? because it would represent the largest shift in power from government (them) to the people (us) since 1776. Everyone would become a taxpayer, a true stakeholder because they would be taxed on what they consume, not on what they earn. As it is now, we are almost at, if not beyond the tipping point where more than 50% of the population pays no income tax yet is in the position of voting itself benefits to be paid by the rest of us. If the rallying cry of the participants in the original Tea Party was "no taxation without representation," it should be "no representation without taxation" today.
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