: Reality check: We already don't have to pay "income
: taxes." The real solution to the "income
: tax" problem is not to pay them at all.

Yeah, but it's really _not_ that simple. The whole "invisible contracts" thing applies, which says (over-simplified), "If you've got a bank account, you've agreed to pay income tax."

(That is: Constitutionally, we don't have to pay income taxes - but under contract law, we've agreed to do it. Therefore, there are enforceable-by-law consequences for not paying taxes, unless you fully undertstand the game and go the whole nine yards in playing it.)

: When "they" and their front organizations start
: getting this stupid, it must be a sign of desperation.
: That's good--I like the enemy being desperate!

Might be. Or: Might be this is a "trial balloon". We've got rumors that the return to Consitutional law and to precious metals-backed currency, and the demise of the IRS, are already "a done deal" as of October 2000 - but there remains the necessity of easing "the public mind" into the idea, so there won't be excessive confusion, paranoia, conflict, and calls for retribution for the "dirty deeds" previously done.

If today someone were to introduce legislation, saying essentially, "Ya know, we never really needed all those tax dollars anyway - except to pay the interest on the loans we received from the bankers - so let's just drop this whole income tax thing straightaway," I think the people would go into shock and freak out, don't you? Especially today, after so many just labored long and hard over their 1040's and Schedule C's, etc.

I have one relative who literally ends up in tears over this, every year. I would not be so rude as to tell that relative, "Guess what? Your labors, stress, and payments have all been for nothing!" - not until that relative has already begun to ask questions about it (which hasn't happened yet). Multiply that by millions of "taxpayers", and ya get a sense of what would happen if the news were broken to them abruptly.

If you don't like the "Fair Tax" thing, consider that Linder is using it to open the door on a _national debate_ about taxes - in other words, he may or may not believe he's got "the answer" here; he may have deliberately done a half-way job of crafting it, specifically so that, in an open national debate, someone will point out things that are wrong with it and/or offer something better.

I feel pretty much the same way about NESARA - some good ideas in there, perhaps not the ultimate solution, and some things I'd like to see different about it. Still, this is at least "a public starting point", which is more than any congresscritter has managed to offer previously.

I'm not saying "Ooh, this _great_; let's do it exactly this way!" But I do think we wanna ponder it long and hard, and make sure we're not tossing the baby out with the bath by denouncing it reactively.