James,
You indicate fear that “Unless we repeal the 16th amendment, we will have both a sales tax and an income tax” when the FairTax is passed. Well, in all honesty, nothing is preventing that from happening now! Instituting a sales tax on top of the current income tax is perfectly allowable under current law. We don’t have it because Congress realizes the people wouldn’t stand for it.
Because the FairTax legislation in it’s very first section deletes most all the current tax code from the law books, after the FairTax passed the only way you could have an income tax again would be for Congress to vote for it to be reinstalled in the law books. Again, the same forces preventing them from adding a sales tax now would be in place preventing them from adding an income tax after the FairTax.
Is removing the 16th amendment a great idea? Absolutely! But it isn’t a deal breaker. And frankly, once people enjoy living under the FairTax, the movement to repeal the 16th would only grow.
Smokey,
Nothing stops Congress now from raising our taxes ad nauseum so your example isn’t a reason to dismiss the FairTax. To the contrary, when congress must raise taxes on EVERYONE in the open instead of just hiding a random new tax in the books that “only affects the richest 1%” will people start holding their elected officials a little more accountable.
Henry,
That “cash discount” becomes a little more tricky when the monitoring agency is now only focused on businesses instead of each individual taxpayer in this country. Furthermore, in order for that “mom and pop” store to buy their goods tax free in order to sell to the final retail customer, what they’re actually doing is claiming a credit versus the tax they owe every month. When their credits start exceeding their liabilities, that’s a big giant red flag right there.
And, um, how much fraud to you think we have under our current system? Let’s just say it dwarves what fairtax fraud will be…and yes, I admit people will find a way to avoid the fairtax as well. It’s the American way. 
