Left Turn on Bird Street

Why Huckabee's 'Fair Tax' support will die

While stealing a glimpse of CNN today, I caught an interview with Mike Huckabee who was explaining his support of the so-called "fair tax."
A replacement for our current taxation scheme, the "fair tax" is simply a national sales tax.

While there would be big winners (high wage earners and those who are not big consumers) and losers(lower income earners) with a national sales tax, I have to at least applaud Huckabeee for discussing different ways of funding the government.
Unfortunately for Huckabee, the "fair tax" will never see the light of day for several reasons. One major obstacle is Wall Street. With Wall Street firms collecting very hefty "fees" from 401-k plans, which help lower income taxes, I doubt they would support something that would deprive them of their hard earned fees and year-end bonuses.

The bigger hurdle, and it's a big one, is congress and multi-national corporations. With a tax code that is something like 66,000 pages, the tax code is a bonanza for big business and congress. These two institutions would be loath to give up the power that comes with writing tax codes that reward friends and punish enemies.

Nice try Huck, I really mean it, but it ain't gonna happen.