Daily Archives: June 26, 2008

Open Letter: Initial Thoughts on the FairTax

Hi Ryan,

Here are my initial thoughts on the FairTax: The FairTax isn’t a good idea. First, it’s deceptive about the cost to America, and second, it would create a brand new bureaucracy without any pragmatic benefit.

The first point you can do the research to find out. According to FactCheck.org, the FairTax proposes a 23% sales tax, but this wouldn’t be enough to replace all the revenue it’s supposed to replace. Instead, it would have to be around a 34% tax. FactCheck.org is non-partisan and usually reliable; I trust them. You can look into more hard data, but I will defer to their judgment for now.

In my opinion, the proponents of the FairTax are basically lying to the American people about what it would cost. Either you build massive deficits or you cut tons of programs. Undoubtedly, a libertarian would love the latter. However, it remains politically impossible to both implement the FairTax and cut tons of programs.

The second point is that the FairTax is an unnecessary boondoggle. I still adhere to some conservative principles, and this seems to be where they come in handy. FairTax proponents, like Huckabee, will say that they want to abolish the IRS. In truth, the FairTax still requires some type of bureaucracy to handle all it does. What are you going to do? Replace the IRS and institute a new organization? Why would we replace one form of taxation with another if we will still have a bureaucratic mess? Because it’ll make some people feel philosophically more at peace? That’s not a sufficient reason to institute such a radical change. Conservatives rightly resist such change for change’s sake.

If you disagree about the bureaucracy it would create, keep in mind that a sales tax is highly regressive. The FairTax proposes various measures to help out the poor. Someone needs to keep track of who gets what. You’ll find no one promoting a “fair tax” who does not also promote some ways of ameliorating its regressive nature.

In addition, a big sales tax will open up massive smuggling “business opportunities” with our neighboring countries. Either we let all that go, or we crack down on it. If we decide to do any enforcement, guess what? More government.

The FairTax provides no benefit other than some philosophical good feelings, but to implement it would require heavy costs — more than I’ve enumerated here, even. You can’t contemplate the FairTax in abstract; you have to look at what it would cost to actually put it in place. Radical changes require enormous benefits, and that just doesn’t happen with the FairTax. The trade-off isn’t worth it.

As always,
Shawn

JHU Loss in Iraq

I got this e-mail yesterday. Damn this war.

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

We learned late today of the tragic death of one of our own in Iraq.

Nicole Suveges, a graduate student in political science who was working
in Iraq as a civilian, was among four Americans killed an explosion
Tuesday in the offices of the district council in the critical Sadr City
section of Baghdad.

Two U.S. soldiers, a State Department employee, an Italian translator
working for the Defense Department, and six Iraqis also were killed,
according to news reports.

Nicole was in Iraq as a political scientist working in the Army’s
Human Terrain System program, advising the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of
the 4th Infantry Division. A statement from BAE Systems, the company
that employed her, said she helped Army leaders working to reduce
violence in the community and rebuild local infrastructure. Her
intelligence and savvy, combined with her experience as an Army
reservist serving in Bosnia in the 1990s, reportedly made her especially
effective in her work to improve the lives of everyday Iraqis.

I am told that Nicole also was using this second tour in Iraq — she
had previously served there as a civilian contractor several years ago
— to complete field research for her planned dissertation. She was
exploring the process of transition from an authoritarian regime to
democracy. She was investigating especially what that process means for
and how it affects ordinary citizens.

Members of the Political Science Department describe Nicole as an
extraordinarily bright, engaging, kind person, intellectually curious
and outgoing. She also was known as an active citizen of the department,
regularly attending seminars and helping to organize graduate student
activities. As a former Reserve soldier herself and as a person in her
mid-30s, she brought a different and valuable perspective to the
intellectual life of the department.

Nicole was committed to using her learning and experience to make the
world a better place, especially for people who have suffered through
war and conflict. In that, she exemplifies all that we seek to do at
Johns Hopkins: to use knowledge for the good of humanity.

This is the third time in a little over a year that we have learned of
the death in Iraq of a young member of the Johns Hopkins community. Last
year, Lt. Colby Umbrell ’04 and Capt. Jonathan Grassbaugh ’03, both
of the U.S. Army, were killed in action there. Their deaths and
Nicole’s diminish us all. But their lives — lives devoted to
service to others — honor us and our university. We are better for
their having been among us.

Wendy and I join all of you in offering our deepest sympathy to
Nicole’s husband, to her family, to her colleagues and to her
friends.

Sincerely,

Bill Brody