We need a very Flat Income Tax

                                          Introduction, Background, and History
 
All of my references to the "FAIRtax(sm)" (I use the shorthand, "FT", throughout my papers)   are specifically meant to refer to H. R. 25 (S. 155), a bill that was first introduced in Congress in   1999 - it is interesting to note that when I explain some of the FT's fatal flaws, some FT supporters then claim not to like H.R. 25, favoring instead some other "Fair Tax" which they then attempt to describe vaguely as some sort of national retail sales tax (NRST) but without supplying specific provisions. 
 
The term "FAIRtax" with (sm) for "service mark" is now utilized by the national grassroots
lobby group, the Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT®) which is lobbying for the passage of
H.R. 25 (S. 155). - I use (sm) to denote that service mark because WIX cannot accommodate
the superscript needed to show the "sm" above and to the right of the "x" in "tax".
 
AFFT® was apparently organized by a group of financiers from Houston, TX, led by the
late Leo Linbeck, II. AFFT® advertises that it spent $22MM on economic "research" to determine the best replacement tax system - AFFT originally stated that the $22MM was spent on "research and marketing" but later dropped the words ".. and marketing" and
has never produced the economics papers (as if they could predict anything anyway)
that were supposedly produced by the $22MM, nor have they ever produced an
accounting of the $22MM that can be "audited" so that we can see, e.g., how much was spent on marketing.
 
Upon the recent death of Mr. Linbeck, his son, Leo Linbeck, III "took over" the AFFT and immediately began to distance himself from the FT. In a FT BlogTalkRadio show on June
26, 2013 (replayed on July 2, 2013) he said that the FT had (rightly) generated much criticism, arguing that any specific proposal would generate criticism. He offered that instead of lobbying for the FT, a better approach would be to lobby for the repeal of the
16th Amendment - supposedly, if that was successful, Congress would then suddenly awaken to the need for a new tax system to be developed and implemented quickly.
No, I am confident this nation would never make any such change without having the specifics of any new tax system worked out well in advance. Recently, Mr. Linbeck
further distanced himself from the FT as the "old guard" of financiers turned over the leadership of the AFFT to a new Board made up of loyal FT grassroots lobbyists from around the country.
 
AFFT® IS a lobbyist - one of the very demons they rail against (their new Chairman
appears to be a lobbyist). They focus on the naked power of tactical lobbying and the seductive power of superficially attractive propaganda.
 
The FT is an NRST that taxes virtually everything ultimate consumers buy except for
tuition and (purportedly) "used" goods. Business-to-business purchases are not taxed.
 
A "Prebate" (a contraction of Pre & Rebate) would "protect" the poor from paying any FT, as if we all agreed that was a good thing to do. Actually, the Prebate goes even further - it deceptively redistributes even more wealth - see FT Increases Tax Welfare.