An EVEN bigger cause of our over-priced economy is the ridiculous income tax system, which handicaps both American business and American taxpayer-consumers.

I am a big booster for the Fair Tax (HR 25, S 25). See http://www.fairtax.org. That well-written legislation has languished in the in-box of the House Ways and Means Committee at least since 1996. It would give every American worker an instant 10-39% raise in take-home pay, make all American goods considerably less-expensive on international markets, require everybody, including rich people and foreign tourists, criminals and even illegal immigrants to pay their fair share of the cost of running our federal government.

The Fair Tax Bill would make April 15th just another Spring day, eliminate the adversarial relationship between our citizens and the WORST department of our federal government (with the exception of the current Administration.) So WHY has it never been sent to the House floor for a vote? 80% of Congress are lawyers. Lawyers make their biggest and easiest money protecting their clients from the big bad IRS.

There IS a ray of hope. Last I knew, there were more than 50 cosponsors of the Bill in Congress. Believe it or not, Barbara Cubin is one of them.

Unfortunately, liberals have a knee-jerk negative reaction to sales taxes, insisting that they are “regressive”. In reality, the Fair Tax would be a LOT more progressive than the existing income tax system, and a WHOLE LOT simpler.

This Nation is broken, and until we stop treating our honest citizens like criminals, and our criminals like high government officials, we’ll never fix it.

my guess is that the old rev. and other flacks on the board discussed this in their negotiations with Schuessler, who by the way is way more trouble than old Ronny O. the ignorant board realized that it could never get away with buying a $2.5 million home without public scrutiny. so instead it turned that dirty job over to the foundation. why was this never announced when schuessler signed his contract? we heard about everything negotiated but this.

i wonder who has the mortgage? doesn’t the foundation’s pres, jim lewis, do something at jackson state bank? his wallet is getting fatter i suppose. i just heard the foundation’s agent, ed liebzeit, is also a board member. and he took commission. again, somebody’s wallet is getting fatter. the whole thing reeks of the inherent problems at that center: running the hospital to benefit a few to the detriment of many.

so while the vacant nursing positions remain open, bad debt continues to sore, and us working-class folks can’t pay our medical bills because prices have nearly increased 50 percent in five years (i’ll bet they increase this year, too), at least it’s comforting to know that our publicly funded medical center is taking care of us. i’m tipping one back now. here’s to our health!!