Fair Tax wins CNBC Poll 74% to 26%

CNBC's Kudlow & Company hosted by Larry Kudlow held a short debate or discussion of the Fair Tax and the Flat Tax on Wednesday nights show. Larry encouraged viewers in the first half hour to go on line and enter their opinion on whether they liked a 17% Flat Tax or the 23% Fair tax.
As of the close of the poll 2952 votes were cast and the Fair Tax Won 74% to 26%.
The Discussion included Radio Talk Show Host Neil Boortz and Wall Street Journal contributor Stephen Moore.

I wrote an article in january in response to his support of the Flat Tax:
http://fairtaxreform.blogspot.com/2005/05/zero-income-tax-and-zero-payroll-tax.html


Neil started the discussion with a fun jab at Stephen Moore and said, Let's declare the winner by who has the highest sales and ranking on the NY times Best Seller List.
Neil Boortz's Book "The Fair Tax Book" is currently #1 and Steve Forbes's Book on the Flat Tax(which Moore supports) is far behind.

Stephen Moore pointed out that the popularity of both books shows that the American people are very interested in changing the current system to something new and not just tinkering around the edges of the current Income tax code.

Stephen and Larry also discussed that their sources had indicated that the President's Tax Reform Panel will not recommend major reform in its report at the end of September but only suggest minor changes in the current code.

This certainly flys in the face of the popularity of the Fair Tax and the disgust the American people feel toward the IRS and the complicated tax code that requires a tax accountant to prepare.

What is required is a ground swell by the public in support of the Fair Tax. Much Like the problems on the Border with Mexico and illegal immigration, it takes the public demanding change to push politicians to action.

The Fair Tax certainly won the debate last night and that is inspite of the fact that the poll question was misleading in favor of the Flat Tax.

You see the 17% Flat tax still leaves in place the payroll tax of 7.65% for a total rate on income of 24.65%.

The Fair Tax replaces both Income and payroll taxes with a 23% Inclusive sales tax rate.

If the Poll asked;
Do you want a Flat Tax with a total 24.65% rate OR
Do you want a Fair Tax with a 23% Rate on Purchases?
I am sure the results would have been even better.

For an honest poll see this article repeated with a poll at RedState.org
http://merrill-bender.redstate.org/story/2005/8/25/15831/5293

For more information on the Fairtax read the FAQ section of www.fairtax.org

and read " Give Every American Family a Raise"
http://fairtaxreform.blogspot.com/2005/02/give-every-american-family-raise.html