Cynical attack blurs Fair Tax debate
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
By: Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff

Not even Saxby Chambliss' opponent agrees with this ad

It's hard to find a better example of an unfair political attack than the one blanketing Georgia's airwaves accusing Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss of seeking to impose "a 23 percent national sales tax on nearly everything you buy." storyPhotos();

This is nonsense, of course. A politician would be out of his mind to propose such a tax on top of all the other taxes Americans pay. Voters seem to know that, which is why the attack has failed in most races where Democrats have used it -- against U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint in South Carolina, for instance.

The so-called "national sales tax" has a name. It's called the Fair Tax, and until Democrats took control of Congress two years ago, it had been picking up quite a bit of steam.

The central feature of the Fair Tax isn't the 23 percent national sales tax, but the fact that it would replace all other federal taxes, including those for Social Security. This is what the ad against Chambliss doesn't mention.

There's nothing wrong with Democrats opposing those who favor the Fair Tax, but they should do so on the plan's merits -- not by ripping its downside without mentioning the upside.

The attack ad, sponsored by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was so out of line that Jim Martin, challenging Chambliss for the Senate seat, even distanced himself from it.

The real losers in these kinds of attack ads are voters. The Fair Tax is an imaginative, innovative idea that would encourage national savings while greatly revamping and simplifying the horrendous tax code we're operating under now.

When voters hear the whole Fair Tax story, many support it. A full, fair, open debate on the Fair Tax would enlighten the electorate, if only such a debate could take place. But it can't as long as one side mis-characterizes and lies about it. That is, indeed, a sad commentary on America's political campaigns.

From the Tuesday, October 21, 2008 edition of the Augusta Chronicle