The three men seeking election this fall in the 2nd Congressional District will participate in a candidate forum tonight in Norfolk.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, the Democratic incumbent, and challengers Scott Rigell, a Republican, and Kenny Golden, an independent, will participate in the 7 p.m. event at 2nd Calvary Baptist Church at 2940 Corprew Ave. The forum is open to the public.
The district includes Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore and parts of Norfolk and Hampton.
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Fair Tax?
I am putting this at the top so someone like portworker or one of Golden's people could possibly answer this for me.
Is there, or has there ever been, a country that implemented a system along the lines of the proposed Fair Tax?
By this I mean a country that has sufficiently had a PURE CONSUMPTION tax at the point of sale (no income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare, payroll, capital gains, etc.), only on personal expenditures (business purchases are not taxed under the Fair Tax), and used no other form such as VAT or otherwise to tax businesses?
sorta
The United States had a consumption tax on select items instead of the income tax before 16th ammendment. FICA was invented in the 1930's.
Read the authors' own words to get the unfiltered idea. Former congressman John Linder and talk show host Neal Boortz developed and refined the Fair Tax.
The key like every other government tax system is to balance the spending to the taxes raised.
In a nut shell - the model of the consumption tax with prebates is not in place as stated under the "Fair Tax" in the "real world".
The experiment is worth the try with such restriction as not to increase the black market.
But why...
I agree that our current method of taxation needs to be changed. I just don't buy the argument of changing it in a way that has never been successful.
The Fair Tax provides for prebates that can be taken advantage of. If an individual figures out how to "work the system," they can receive a prebate check when they are not even employed.
The Fair Tax does not allow for businesses to be taxed. It is based strictly on personal consumption. How then would "services" be taxed? It seems to me that under the Fair Tax system any company that strictly provided services, and not a product, would not pay into taxes. Wouldn't this provide more of a deficit?
Preforming same action and expect differnet results= insanity
Voting for the Republican or Democrate and expecting things to change equals insanity. It is time to vote Independant. Keep up the good fight Kenny
The process is what it is
The time for voting "for" a candidate is during the primary elections.
During the November elections its a vote "against".
It is upsetting, but it's the system we operate under, and it could be far worse. Those who always want to vote "for" a candidate just haven't been jaded to reality yet.
Except
Except a vote for Golden is most likely to have the impact of keeping the incumbent in the seat. Face it, Golden has little to no chance of winning, and if he takes votes from Rigell, we get a Democrat going back to DC. Returning a Democrat tells Pelosi, Reid and Obama that this District supports their stupid, dangerous agenda.
I hate that I have to say that, because I think both parties are corrupt as are many members of Congress, but the Dems agenda is a job killing, country bankrupting program that is hurting us now and will only make things worse. There is no chance they will change that if we send a Dem back to DC; the only hope of reversing some of the damage the Dems are doing is to get as many of them out of Congress as we can. Golden's candidacy doesn't help that.
Get on board the Rigell Train!
My favorite part of the last debate was when Scott Rigell nailed Nye on mailing those "Paid for by Taxpayer's Expense" glossy direct mail pieces. At a time when our national deb is 13 Trillion dollars, Congressman Nye should be ashamed he is using our taxpayer dollars to campaign.
I look forward to the debate, hopefully the rain won't keep too many people away!
They're Called "Franking Privileges"
The fact that Rigell does not know that members of Congress both enjoy free constituent mailing privileges AND that federal law requires disclosures when mail is sent from incumbents' offices at the public's expense proves that Rigell understands exactly nothing about how Congress works.
Except,
what was sent was effectively a campaign piece. The point Rigell was making, and made will, is that campaign literature is NOT suppose to be sent using franking, and Nye did just that.
Except
all of the stuff mailed out by all of the Congressmen is self-promoting and "effectively campaign pieces." Unless it explicitly says "vote for me," it is allowed.