Mike Huckabee offers a bold approach to taxation

All the Republican candidates for president can tout experiences and accomplishments that make them unique so that potential supporters flock to their side. One issue about which each, to varying degrees, has driven a stake, is taxes.

Interestingly, when you compare candidates' tax proposals (visit taxfoundation.org), most offer some variation of a flat tax that would be filed on a postcard, with different rates for a range of income or corporate revenue. A flat tax seems simple and easy enough, until you realize that's how we got to where we are now.

In 1913, the income tax for individuals was 1 percent of anything over $3,000. Now we have deductions, exemptions, exceptions, calculations, credits and thousands of pages of explanations - which change every year. On top of that, we have a tax collection agency, the IRS, that can be and has been used as a political weapon to harass and thwart those not belonging to the party in power.

Should we not rightly expect those candidates with a business background like Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina to offer 'stellar” tax incentives to ignite the economy? Other popular and prominent candidates, such as Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, offer no positions on some aspects of taxation at all. Yet, one candidate, Gov. Mike Huckabee, is proposing a distinctly different and bold approach to taxation, called the FairTax.

For example, Trump and Carson offer a corporate rate of between 10-15 percent, pretty low compared to the present 39 percent. But what if it was 0 percent? Under a FairTax system, that is exactly what it would be.

What if you instituted a tax system that drove commodity prices lower because it's based on consumption rather than production? What if everyone paid, to create the broadest possible tax base, and everyone paid the same rate? What if there were no federal deductions taken out of your paycheck for income, social security or Medicare?

What if you determined when and where you would pay taxes? What if you didn't have to pay taxes (again) on any used/resold item? What if you paid no taxes on essential goods and services? What if you didn't have to file taxes at all, not even on a post card? What if there were no IRS?

All of these features are hallmarks of the FairTax proposal, legislation that has been waiting in Congress since 1999 and placed on the docket every year for consideration (H.R. 25, S.D. 155, Fairtax.org). It's time to act, and out of the field of Republican candidates today, only Mike Huckabee and has expressed the boldness and clarity to do so.

' Bernie Hayes, of Cedar Rapids, volunteers as volunteer Linn County chair for Mike Huckabee's campaign for president. Comments: berniectl@gmail.com