The Fair Tax and spending discipline

This request came to Porkopolis via email (slightly edited for clarity):

On your recommended sites please add a link to http://www.fairtax.org/. The passage of house bill H.R.25 and Senate bill S.25 will largely do away with pork by making making the system more transparent.

www.fairtax.org is a grassroots organization promoting the passage of these bills.

Thank you.
Dave Sibole

Americans for Fair Taxation is based on The FairTax Book by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder. The organization has a number of volunteers in Ohio along with a yahoo group which details their mission:

• Repeal the federal income tax
• Repeal all payroll taxes including taxes on Social Security and Medicare
• Repeal corporate and self-employment taxes
• Repeal all estate, gift, and capital gains taxes
• Make the taxation of income unconstitutional
• Provide a universal rebate equal to the sales tax paid on essential goods and services to ensure that no American pays taxes on necessities Impose a 23% tax-inclusive rate on the purchase of new goods and services in the U.S.
• Dramatically lower tax rates for low and middle-income Americans
• Allow families to save more for home ownership, education, and retirement.

The plan claims that it is revenue neutral in its FAQ section:

Does the FairTax rate need to be much higher to be revenue neutral? The proper tax rate has been carefully worked out; 23 percent does the job of: (1) raising the same amount of federal funds as are raised by the current system, (2) paying the universal rebate, and (3) paying the collection fees to retailers and state governments. Unlike some other proposals, this rate has been independently confirmed by several different, non-partisan institutions across the country. Detailed calculations are available from FairTax.org.

This initiative is laudable because it contributes to the discussion on the revenue side of the equation...but until we reform our wasteful spending habits we're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Brian Riedl's Federal Spending: By the Numbers (a must read analysis) contributes these five critical analyses to illustrate the point: