There’s that 30 percent silliness again .. and once again Adler completely ignores (if he’s aware of it at all) the fact that prices do not go up when the FairTax is implemented. The embedded taxes from our present tax system are removed, the FairTax is added … and we’re pretty much right back where we started. When you take money out of your savings account under our current tax scheme, and when you spend that money, you’re paying the 22 percent embedded tax. After implementation you’ll be paying the 23 percent embedded FairTax instead. Wrong, Mr. Adler. Flat out wrong.

At implementation, all of the social and business incentives, benefits and disincentives included in the Internal Revenue Code disappear:

A tax code should exist to procure the funds necessary for the operation of government, not to manipulate human or business behavior. Besides, the form of these “social and business incentives, benefits and disincentives” consist basically of tax credits or deductions. Credits and deductions are meaningless when there is no longer an income tax.

Among the “incentives” and “benefits” that Adler says will disappear we find references to the following:

Home interest deduction – encouraging home ownership

Contribution deductions - encouraging contributions to charity

Lower tax rate on capital gains - encouraging investment

Lower tax rate on dividends - encouraging investment

Come on, my friends. Are you beginning to see for yourselves how absurd these arguments are? Point by point:

• The home mortgage interest deduction is of no value whatsoever to someone who does not pay income taxes.

• People don’t contribute to charity in order to get a tax deduction. Who would give away $1000 just to save $350 on their taxes? Somehow that doesn’t seem to be a good trade to me.

• If lower tax rates on capital gains encourage investment … think what NO taxes on capital gains would do. That’s life under the FairTax.

• Ditto for dividends.

Look … I could go on and on picking apart Adler’s FairTax critique. You can see how easy this is. It’s like hunting over a baited field.

Truth is, Hank Adler certainly isn’t alone in his faulty interpretation and understanding of the FairTax. I actually took the time to read some of the comments to his essay posted on Townhall.com and came up with this incredible beauty:

23% on profits, not costs...

This is often mentioned by Fair Tax proponents (who should know better), but I don't think it carries any water. They claim corporations pay 23% (or whatever number) in taxes, and if removed, they could lower the cost of their goods by 23%.

Problem is, that is 23% on their PROFITS, not their COSTS. Most company's taxable profits rarely exceed 15% (most are under 10%, some even lose money over the course of a year).

Now please excuse my Norwegian .. but what in the wide, wide world of sports is this character talking about? A 23% tax on profits? Now we can really be charitable here and suppose that this character is referring to the average 22 percent embedded taxes in every product and service we buy … but by what incredible twist of logic can some (presumably) government-educated person even bring themselves to put that thought process on paper?

Implementation of the FairTax would constitute the biggest transfer of power from the government to the people in the history of this Republic. Perhaps that is what frightens Mr. Adler the most.