A reader wrote in to suggest I take a look at two Bruce Bartlett articles opposing the FairTax. In the first article, Bartlett states:

A current proposal by Rep. John Linder (R., Ga.) says that a 23 percent rate would be adequate. But such a low rate can only be sustained by making completely absurd assumptions about what would be taxed.

The second article says:

[T]he tax rate would have to be prohibitively high to replace all federal taxes. Its own supporters admit that it would have to be 30 percent when compared to state sales taxes. And a new analysis by economist Bill Gale of the Brookings Institution estimates that it would actually take a rate of 60.7 percent.

I find the simplicity of the FairTax appealing. Of course, if the economic assumptions are flawed, and those flaws make the plan unworkable, then the plan should not be implemented.

I am not an economist and am not in a position to judge the claims made by both sides. I am more concerned with tax fairness, tax simplicity, and a policy that encourages economic growth. Exactly how those goals are achieved are less important to me than achieving them.