Rally calls for change in tax system
Monday, June 15, 2009
By: T.J. Greaney

Speakers, crowd incensed with IRS.

A daylong rally in support of replacing the federal income tax with a 23 percent retail sales tax drew thousands to the Boone County Fairgrounds yesterday.

In the style of a Southern revival meeting, a series of speakers took the stage to rail against a government they see as recklessly speeding toward socialism and mortgaging the wealth of future generations in the process.

Nearly all interviewed for this story believe it is high time to put the Internal Revenue Service out of business.

“Our tax code right now is a man-caused disaster,” said Neal Boortz, a nationally syndicated radio host who has advocated a “fair tax” over the income tax for more than 25 years. “It is in every respect an act of terror against the working people of this country.”

Another speaker, U.S. Rep. John Linder, R-Ga., is co-sponsor of a bill in Congress to institute the national sales tax and mused about what he would do with the approximately 105,000 employees of the IRS when they’re no longer needed. “I say put them on the Mexican border holding hands,” the congressman said to laughter from the crowd of about 2,000 inside the fairground arena.

Proponents contend the new tax would be revenue neutral, not taking money away from existing federal programs. It also would include a monthly rebate check for all taxpayers known as a “prebate,” which equal the average spending by someone living at the poverty level to ensure no one is taxed on necessities. They also contend the federal sales tax would not significantly increase the cost of goods because corporations already pass along federal taxes to consumers as “embedded costs” in everything from cans of Coca-Cola to new cars.

“If the fair tax was your reality, and somebody came along and tried to sell you on the income tax and withholding and the death tax, you’d laugh them out of town,” Boortz said in an interview. “Either that, or you’d string them up. It’s one of the two.”

Many in the crowd wore clothing emblazoned with the fair tax logo or the American flag and toted newly purchased books on the subject. One woman, Kerri Martin of Jefferson City, held a sign reading, “Who is John Galt?” — referring to a character from Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” Martin said the character embodies “the spirit and power of the individual.”

“We’ve got to remember, it’s our money we earn. It’s not someone else’s to spend,” said Martin, who with her husband runs a title company. “And this would give us some control. It’s a very ingenious plan.”

A booth run by Columbia gun-rights advocate Tim Oliver advertised introductory courses on owning and carrying concealed weapons. He was doing a brisk business.

“They’re sort of kindred spirits, if you will,” Oliver said of people who support the fair tax and the Second Amendment. Oliver then told a reporter to look around and asked who in the group of about 40 people near his booth did not have a concealed carry permit. “Almost all of them” do, he said. “And just like all polite people and all polite company, nobody’s ever going to know” they’re carrying weapons.

Glenn Chastonay of Moberly drove to the rally along with his wife and father. Chastonay intalls hood hinges for Dura Automotive Systems and recently had to endure a mandatory one-month furlough because of the economic slowdown. His wife, Joyce, recently lost her job, and both are angry that the government is using their tax dollars to bailout corporations. They’d rather keep all the money they earn.

“What about the billion dollars they gave to AIG, and those guys got bonuses? And I’m struggling to put food on the table and pay all my bills,” Chastonay said. “That’s our money. The tax money doesn’t come from the government; it comes from us.”

His father, Ruel Chastonay, a retired IBM employee from Jefferson City, said the tax system has become an overgrown monster. “I do my taxes every year and it’s an onerous task,” he said of the two days he spends tabulating his dues. “And they change it every year; not to help me, but to put in some loophole or to help some lobbyist.”

Advocates including Boortz said the choice for people is between being taxed on “33 percent of everything you earn or 23 percent of everything you spend.” The federal income tax rate he cited refers to the marginal tax rate on some of the top earners in the country. The median household income in Boone County, however, is about $45,000, meaning those families pay federal income tax of about 15 percent.

A study conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said the middle 20 percent of Missouri’s income distribution, those with an average income of $37,000, would see an average tax increase of $2,036 under the fair tax.