A reader who thinks Huckabee is more fiscally conservative than he is given credit for wrote in a little while back:
Huckabee supports the Fair Tax, and does a good job of explaining it. It looks to me like most establishment Conservatives, like NRO and Weekly Standard, have given the Fair Tax a cursory glance, thought “This is a nutty idea that will never pass anyway”, and written it off, while Evangelicals have probably studied it thoroughly and know all the talking points/counterpoints. Evangelicals have developed a tendency to cling to unpopular causes for long periods of time that have had no political success (a Federal Marriage Amendment, Right to Life Amendment) so it’s no stretch for them to accept and be enthusiastic about a meaningful tax reform proposal.
Some people will find Huckabee’s backing of the Fair Tax reassuring, but I’m not one of them. This reader’s characterization of the view of “establishment conservatives” is not far off from mine.
I’m intrigued by the theory of a national sales tax, or a consumption tax, or some variations of these. But supporters of the Fair Tax seem to find the enormous, radical, epoch-shaking change part of its appeal instead of a potential liability.
If and when Congress considers scrapping the entire tax code and replacing it with the Fair Tax, the scene in Washington is going to look like one of those giant battle scenes from Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, or, say, the Imaginationland episodes of South Park.
One one side of Capitol Hill, you’re going to have a plucky band of stout-hearted policy warriors, led by perhaps the President backing the idea and some members of Congress. They’ll be joined by longtime advocates like Neal Boortz and John Linder. Herman Cain. Maybe Sean Hannity. Maybe Mike Gravel sitting alone, muttering to himself.
And on the other side of the hill, sharpening their battle axes will be… oh, just about all of Washington. Every lobbyist who has ever labored to get a tax break written into the tax code. Every special interest who has ever succeeded in getting a tax break written into the tax code. Every homeowner worried about losing the home mortgage deduction, along with every real estate agent, home builder, and construction worker. Every charity of every stripe, ready to push orphans and puppies in front of the camera, claiming they’re doomed without the charitable deduction. Every accountant and tax preparer. And every member of Congress who refused to give up their most powerful policy tool, their ability to influence the federal tax code. And just think, all they would need would be 40 votes to filibuster the proposal to death.
So the political fight to pass the Fair Tax would the Bloodbath To End All Bloodbaths, with the odds stacked very heavily against the reformers. Maybe some people find struggling for decades against the toughest of odds for a dream derided as crazy by skeptics to be inspiring, an ideal that gets the blood pumping.
But I’d prefer a candidate who had a plan B for tax reform that could be passed with, say, simple majorities in the House and Senate.