Disagreements with "A Versatile Solution."

Dear Editor,

Carl Milsted wrote: Why don’t we just give every citizen a chunk of money each month and be done with it? This is the idea behind the citizen’s dividend. The Fair Tax people are proposing such a dividend to make a large national sales tax to replace the income and employment taxes.

My Reply: Ideally everyone should work to support him or herself, yes. There should be no handouts, I agree. IMHO, though, the FairTax can never be passed without such a simple, small "refund" and the advocates call the FairTax "Prebate". It's really not much different than the simple tax exemptions we currently have, is it? My point is that we have to leave a small "handout" program in the FairTax policy, if we ever expect it to be enacted.

Milsted wrote: . . . coupled with giving everyone the same sized rebate check. (Or a larger check for those with easily measured disabilities such as old age, blindness, etc.)

My Reply: No, I don't believe the FairTax.org plan has any mention of blindness, old age, etc. The food stamps, socail security, WIC, and other "Welfair" programs won't be affected at all by the FairTax. One by one, we'll have to reduce, eliminate, or simplify these Welfare programs. The FairTax.org plan only alters the "handout" ammount based on the number of adults in the family. A family of 4 with two adults, gets more than a family of 4 with only one adult, as I recall.

Everything else, I agree with.

-- Paul Burgener