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;Fair on the FairTax
;Your recent article ["FairTax, or foul?", Aug. 3] received widespread dissemination. You wrote a brilliant, totally unbiased, fair presentation to the public. Thanks for the terrific information. We've recently begun to hear more and more about the grass-roots support this FairTax initiative has received. Now, your readers have basic tools to begin their own research on the Internet, get their own copies of pertinent literature, and do their own things to support the FairTax if they so choose. Thanks again for the great job you did in reporting the events that took place in the Orlando area!
;;Don Presar, via the Internet
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;;Foul on the FairTax
;While your article ["FairTax, or foul?", Aug. 3] ended on a neutral note, you allude to the rally being about "something more," yet you fail to mention what "more" it's about, other than an inaccurate analysis of the FairTax plan, itself. Allow me to reply to your printed words from Randall Holcombe, professor of economics at Florida State University, a man who clearly has not studied H.R. 25 to the extent of complete understanding.
;;Holcombe (and you) says that a soon-to-be retiree has paid taxes his/her entire life, and if the FairTax is implemented, they will be paying taxes on goods and services, in essence, paying taxes twice. Yes, this is true, but with the 22 percent embedded taxes being removed and businesses moving to the U.S. it won't matter, because the cost of goods will remain the same, at most. Plus, the cost of embedded business, insurance and raw-material taxes is being paid by every single consumer already.
;;Second, he says: "The current income tax system, the bottom 50 percent of tax payers, they actually get money back. They're net recipients of the income tax. That's because of the earned income tax credit. If you do away with the income tax system, and along with it the earned income tax credit, a lot of people are not going to be doing as well by the tax system as they are now."
;;I, as an artist, paid over $8,000 in income taxes last year between withholding and April 17, 2006. This is equal to 25 percent of my income, mostly never seeing my bank account. I know that I'm within the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers, so I know this statement is not true. Find me one person that is a "net recipient of the income tax" and I'll show you Sasquatch and the Loch Ness monster playing Twister.
;;Lastly, shame on Orlando Weekly. The police and fire departments stated at the rally that there was an estimated attendance of over 10,000, and as many as 12,000 individuals present. Two thousand? Where did you get this number? I was at the rally at the behest of my friend from Tampa and I can assure you there were clearly more than 2,000 people visible. Leave the number fudging to the Orlando Sentinel.
;;Joe Bluhm, Orlando
;;Women's work
;Great going, guys! Sending a man to cover a women's romance convention had to be the smartest move on your part yet ["Conventional love," June 22]. How apropos! How inventive! How absolutely enlightening! The editor who assigned a man for this job should stand up and take a bow for being so astute, so practical, so definitive!
;;You just knew a male reporter would handle it with true professionalism and be unbiased. Sending a woman — perhaps even a romance reader — wouldn't have had the same flair this story did.
;;Charlotte Boyett-Compo, via the Internet
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;;Department of Corrections
;Last week's Happytown™ incorrectly characterized a confiscated Tech-9 as a "semiautomatic machine gun." There is no such thing, as several readers pointed out.
;; [email protected]
