For those who didn't see the debate, the question posed to the candidates was; Do you support the FairTax?

Huckabee, as he has done in past debates, did an outstanding job explaining the benefits of the FairTax.

Romney either doesn't quite get it, has bad advisor's telling him about the FairTax, or prefers the punitive tax system we have today.

Romney's mentioned the Presidents commission on taxation not favoring the FairTax. If he read the report they didn't think the FairTax as written would pass a vote so they altered the concept and made the tax an exclusive rather than an inclusive tax. After making changes to the plan the commission then looked at the plan and ended up not recommending it.

Romney said that the tax would only apply new home sales. While he is correct on that fact, he misses the meaning and value of only taxing new home sales. Under the current tax code we only pay federal taxes once, that being when a newly built home is sold for the first time. Those taxes are; the employee income taxes and corporate taxes of the builder and any company that made products used to construct the home.

Romney also said we must consider how only taxing new home sales would effect the construction industry. Well, we only pay federal taxes on new home sales now, and since the FairTax is designed to replace the inclusive taxes that are already paid with a revenue neutral inclusive tax (in other words it would not raise or lower the total sale price from what it is now), then the effect on construction is that the construction company building new homes no longer has to have an accountant spend hours making sure they comply with payroll taxes and corporate taxes, thus their overhead is reduced. Add to that people would be bringing home what they actually earned then there may be more buyers in the market for those new homes.

Even if people favored buying older existing homes instead of new homes (thinking they are somehow escaping the payment of taxes) it would result in more people buying, maintaining, fixing up and remodeling older homes. So maybe there would be less clearing of wood land or farm land outside cities to make way for new home development projects while existing homes in towns and cities are left to become a blight on the communities in which they exist. If it makes since to recycle paper, plastic, and metal why not apply that logic to our homes too?

Now on to Giuliani.

After stating a few things he would do, like eliminate the death tax, he says that if we were starting off from the beginning the no taxes would be best, but after that said either the flat tax or fair tax would be the way to go.

So now I must ask, why is it the way to go if starting from the beginning but not the change we need to make now given the current system is so messed up? Are we not at a point after attempting to fix the current system so many times in the last 100 plus years that the bes t thing is to just start over?

He says it would be to complex to get from the system we have now to the system laid out in the FairTax. He must not have read, or understood, the plan because it lays it out in fairly plain English. As of January 1^st the year after the FairTax is passed no company will with hold taxes from employees and with cease paying corporate taxes. At the same time the retailers and service providing companies will begin collecting taxes on the products or services they sell.

He then questions who would administer the sales tax with no IRS. Again he makes a comment which shows his lack of understanding. Under the FairTax plan the States use their already existing sales tax collection systems to collect the FairTax, then they pass those funds, minus a collection fee to cover their added costs, on to the federal governments Treasury.

Then he asks who will administer the people who are exempt from the sales tax, and what items might be exempt from the sales tax. Again a huge example of how he doesn't understand the plan. The whole idea behind the FairTax is that there are no exemptions! It is exemptions and credits which are part of the problem now so the ideas to to get rid of those favors and treat every one equally and fairly.

Then McCain's turn.

Well other than calling for the elimination of the AMT (alternative minimum tax) he is pretty much for the current system. No surprise there, that has been his stance all along. One thing he did mention was calling in Greenspan and asking for his recommendations for tax reform then vote on them yes or no. This scares me a bit. When did one man become the tax God? Is he the only person in this country who can have a good idea about taxes? Greenspan spent 13 years as the Fed chairman (1987 to 2000) In that 13 years we attempted to reform taxes many times, yet we are no better off today that we were when he was appointed Fed chairman. Time for some new ideas rather than turn to those who have contributed to the problem, or failed to fix it, for help.

The only point McCain made that was on target was the 140 billion dollar cost to the nation each year just to comply with the code. Imagine if our federal government had the money it spends each year to enforce the tax code free to spend elsewhere. Well, they would just miss appropriate it on earmarks.

Lastly Tancredo.

And for the first time I heard him speak on the FairTax and he, like Huckabee has nailed it. His comments towards Giuliani to read the book, and then saying he should know more than he does if he read it as he claims were spot on.

The his point about how the current system is used to manipulate behavior is also perfect. I'm glad to see another candidate speaking so passionately about the FairTax.

My thoughts about the candidates after this latest debate.

I knew going in that Romney and McCain were not FairTax supporters. Giuliani, who I had not heard speak on the subject before this has lost some of my support. I like his stance on other issues, such as the War on Islamic Terror, but if the choice is him and another like Huckabee or Tancredo, I'll go with one of them before I support Giuliani.

Prior to this debate I was a big supporter or Huckabee, now I list Tancredo at the top of my list as well.

If you want to see the debate on Youtube go there and search for ABC GOP debate 08/05/07. It is broken up into 9 parts. The FairTax question is asked in part 7 and continues in part 8. (there is a bit of overlap, the first 1:30 seconds of part 8 is the last 1:30 of part 7)