One of the things late 19th and 20th century American politicians have been exceedingly good at is 'the shell game'.

When voters force the hand of politicians to end a dishonest activity and reveal the abuses of government, the politicians already have 'new and improved' legislation that promises an end to those abuses and dishonesties. But in fact, they only take one public step backward to take two hidden steps forward toward more statism.

There aren't many voters who wish the I.R.S. would become larger, more invasive, and would take larger amounts of tax on income.

But now with America's downturned economy, and with illegal immigration being one polemic used by politicians as a scapegoat for our economic woes (ominously providing little distinction between today's America and fear mongering conditions that led to the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Germany), middle class Americans, such as myself, are becoming indignant that not everyone is 'paying their fair share' of the federal income tax.

But is it wise to implement a national sales tax scheme, such as the FairTax? Is it even necessary?

These were the primary reasons I formerly supported the FairTax:

1. It proposes to eliminate the IRS. Anything that eliminates an invasive, gun-toting, envious nest of bureaucrats has my blessing.

2.It proposes to end all payroll taxes, including social secuirty and medicare taxes. How can I argue with keeping my full paycheck?

3. MOST IMPORTANT : It provides a formula for adjusting the tax rate down if more money comes into the system via new job creation and immigration.

But now I oppose the FairTax for one simple reason: It uses a tricky term called 'Revenue Neutral'.

Revenue neutral means that the FairTax rate will initially be set by taking a 'baseline year' for the Federal budget. But notice what the Republicans have done over the past 8 years: spend as much or more than the Democrats have been known to do.

So before the politicians sell us the idea that the FairTax is the best idea, they first have to establish their full spending appetite, and that appetite has not been fulfilled yet. Consider all the Democratic Presidential candidate promises during this campaign. You can safely wager your last remaining pennies that a Democratic white house and congress will far out spend those outrageous new limits set by the Republican controlled congress and white house through 2006. And neo-con Republicans are really me-too impersonators of Democrat welfare statists, so not much is going to change this election year.

So the bottom line is the federal 'gang of 434' (Ron Paul omitted) won't be fully behind the FairTax until they're satisfied they have ballooned the federal spending to a level they think will provide a satisfactory 'base year'.

We should expect the federal politicians to get behind a FairTax or national sales tax soon, because:

1) Middle class people are more saavy at using income tax software to reduce their federal income taxes.

2) Wealthy people continue using their high paid lawyers and accountants to reduce their taxes with IRS sanctioned loop holes.

3) Illegal immigrants (and underground Americans) continue getting paid under the table and not reporting their income.

4) Politicians eventually won't be able to resist the temptation to look like 'heroes' for eliminating the IRS.

But we should oppose the FairTax because:

1) It's not going to prevent Federal spending from getting out of control. Indeed it incentivizes the federal bureaucrats and politicians to continue inflating the budget deficits and demanding 'more more more' from tax payers.

2) It makes a federal tax on your labor and your life unavoidable.

My sentiments are with you, Mr. Boortz: I want to make April 15th just another day. It's your FairTax I oppose.

It's Congressman Ron Paul, not Congressman John Linder who has the best 'flat tax' rate of all: Zero percent. We can eliminate the IRS and replace the income tax with nothing, if we can go back 10 years for a 'baseline' size for the federal government.

Only Ron Paul has proposed a plan for how to shrink the federal government spending that is easily doable, and very sane.

That's why I recommend Ron Paul's 167 page book 'The Revolution: A Manifesto', over Boortz and Linder's FairTax book. It's not a FairTax: it's a federal enslavement tax, exactly the same as the income tax is today.