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Hear is some reading from Neal Boortz' page

Twenty two million dollars. For those of you who do better with numbers than letters, that would be $22,000,000.00. That's the amount of money spent to come up with the original FairTax plan. This money was spent on research by economists and other financial groups; on focus groups across the country; and on comprehensive studies of alternative ways of raising revenue for the operation of government and the consequences of those various methods.

Twenty-two million bucks, and day after day we have to suffer the uninformed and frankly unintelligent slings and arrows launched by people who left their rational reasoning skills far behind as they started their life's journey, or who are so deeply steeped in their petty jealousies and wealth envy, nurtured, no doubt, by their own feelings of personal failure, that they couldn't form a cohesive and rational thought about the FairTax if their very lives depended on it.

I present for you here two letters to the editor that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday, April 9th. Following each letter I'll deliver the appropriate verbal thrashing and try to set the record straight.

Well my, my my. What do we have here? Does it look to you like Mr. Fell (a very prolific letter writer, by the way) may be suffering a bit from wealth envy? How do you like his assertion that the wealthy in this country (however he might define that) had "gifts showered upon them." This is part of the tired old leftist, anti-capitalist saw that the wealthy in our country did no real work to earn their wealth, it was just handed them; or "showered upon them," as Mr. Fell says, or, as Dick Gephardt liked to say, they "won life's lottery." In any event, these leftists are loathe to admit that the wealthy actually worked their tails off for the wealth they enjoyed. Those destined for wealth were working 60 and 80 hour weeks while those destined to remain in the middle class were looking at the clock just waiting for quitting time to come around.

What upsets Mr. Fell so much about the wealthy? Well .. he has two choices here. First, he can work hard, make correct choices, delay gratification and become wealthy. Second .. he can make poor choices, work his 40 hours a week and go home and completely fail to plan for his financial future .. and remain right where he is right now. But .. .if he chooses the latter, he certainly won't be willing to take the blame for his plebian economic status. He'll give himself a pass by trying to convince himself, and others, that those nasty rich people just had wealth "showered upon them." Other than the fact that they got a shower of riches while he got the proverbial golden shower ... he's just as good as they are.

Yeah, right.

Fell thinks that under the FairTax the "wealthiest in our country" will pay no taxes to the federal government. Let's give him a break. There's always the possibility he was educated in government schools. Besides, his left-leaning outlook has poisoned him to the concept of achievement.

First of all, what Mr. Fell may not realize is that the "wealthiest in our country" are quite possibly not paying income taxes under the present system. And why not? Because they're already wealthy. They don't need to work any more. They let their investments work for them.

Let's take the case of Warren Buffet. Several months ago Buffet, with great fanfare, announced to the world that his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he does. Well, duh. His secretary pays income taxes. Warren Buffet pays capital gains taxes. Capital gains taxes are maxed out right now at 15%, and that would be lower than the rate his secretary pays on her salary. Funny how the leftist media didn't bother to point out that little fact when they were touting Buffets thoughts on comparative tax rates.

So what happens to these evil rich people --- the ones who had these gifts "showered upon them" after passage of the FairTax. Well, right now if Mr. Gotrocks takes $4 million out of a savings account, or if he sells something he doesn't need anymore, and uses that $4 million to buy himself a fancy new yacht for his Naples, Florida waterfront home ... he pays nothing to the federal government. He may be socked with a hefty state sales tax ... but for the feds, nunca. After the FairTax, however, there would be a 23% national retail sales tax embedded into the price of that yacht. My government school math tells me that Mr. Gotrocks would actually be paying about $920,000 to the feds. This, to the brilliant and envious Mr. Fell, constitutes "no federal taxes."

The FairTax is the only tax reform plan out there that COMPLETELY untaxes the poor at the federal level. This isn't enough for Mr. Fell .. he has to make sure that the rich get soaked. After all ... it's not as if they worked for that money, right Mr. Fell?

Now .. onward and upward to the second letter:

We'll be a little more gentle with Mr. Kriete because he seems to be expressing an earnest concern about the FairTax, a concern not based on wealth envy as was Mr. Fell's.

Kriete is concerned that people who have already paid federal taxes on the money they sacked away in their savings accounts, IRAs and CDs will have to pay a tax again when they take that money out and spend it during their golden years.

Free Online FairTax Seminar! If you still have questions about the FairTax or have a friend that needs a little educating, Neal has given a FairTax seminar that's available online! It's free! Presented by Comcast High Speed Internet.

I've encountered that particular question dozens of times, and it is fully covered in "FairTax, The Truth: Answering the Critics." The point, Mr. Kriete, is that when these people take that money out of their savings or retirement accounts and spend it at the retail level they're going to pay taxes one way or the other. Under the present Income tax scheme they're going to pay the (average) 22% embedded tax that exists in every product or service purchased at the retail level. With the FairTax comes the end of all business and corporate income and payroll taxes and the end of this 22% tax embedded in our goods and services. Then along comes the FairTax to replace the embedded tax. So, Mr. Kriete, you see that a $700 riding lawn mower or a $16,000 Harley is going to cost pretty much the same after the FairTax as before. In one case you're paying the embedded taxes brought on by today's tax structure, in the other case you're paying the FairTax. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Now, Mr. Kreite, before you go .. .here's another point to consider. Not only will retirees be paying essentially the same for whatever they buy after the FairTax as before, the FairTax will also bring them their monthly prebate checks. Let's say that your retirement household numbers two. Under the FairTax you will receive a check or credit to some bank account every month equal to the FairTax you will be paying that month to purchase the basic necessities of life. Nobody --- not you, not the evil rich guy down the street, not Mr. Fell, not The Talkmaster .. .nobody who is a legal resident of this country will have to pay the FairTax on the basic necessities of life. That prebate check to you, Mr. Kreite, will be several hundred dollars a month. You'll pay no taxes on investment income. You'll pay no taxes on the interest you earn on your savings accounts. There will be no tax on your estate when you die. You will pay no capital gains taxes if you sell some stock to take a nice vacation. You will only pay the FairTax. That's it as far as federal taxes go .... PLUS ... you get that prebate check every month and the price of all the stuff you want to buy remains essentially the same.

Do you still think it is such a bad deal? There's hope for you, Mr. Kreite. For Mr. Fell ... not so much.