Shocking Development: Warm and Fuzzy "Fair Tax" Promises Based On Fuzzy Math

By their own admission, proponents of replacing the state income and corporate earnings taxes with new and higher sales taxes will have to jack up the sales tax by far more than the previously promised.

At a legislative hearing today, Rep. Ed Robb (R-Columbia) acknowledged that the so-called "Fair Tax" would actually increase sales taxes by at least twice what he'd estimated, from the current 4.225% to at least 6-6.2%.  And even that seems low, as the Missouri Budget Project estimates that this huge change in state tax policy would require sales taxes closer to 11% just to break even.  

Under the proposals sponsored by birther Rep. Ed Emery (HJR56), Sen. Chuck Purgason (SJR29) and Sen. Luann Ridgeway (SJR37), families would begin paying the higher sales tax rates and begin paying sales taxes on previously untaxed items.  Food, medical visits, child care, nursing home stays, legal services, real estate services, funerals and more would all be subject to the new sales tax.  (And, of course, there's no chance that savvy Missouri consumers would opt for lower-priced goods in Kansas, Illinois, etc.) 

No one could have predicted that the so-called "Fair Tax" isn't the panacea its supporters have promised.