• I support the FairTax.
• As Governor of Arkansas, I cut taxes and fees almost 100 times, saving the taxpayers almost $380 million. I left a surplus of nearly $850 million, which I urged should go back to the people.
• Our massive deficit is not due to Americans' being under-taxed, but to the government's over-spending.
• To control spending, I believe the President should have the line-item veto.
• I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade.
• Globalization, done right, done fairly, can be the equivalent of a big pay raise by allowing us to buy things more cheaply.
• I support making the Bush tax cuts (set to expire in 2010) permanent.
• Furthermore, I believe that we need to expand upon these cuts by further reducing marginal rates on individual and corporate income, instituting credits for tuition, and eliminating the “death tax.” 

I'd like you to join me at the best "Going Out of Business" sale Ican imagine - one held by the Internal Revenue Service. Am I runningfor president to shut down the federal government? Not exactly. But Iam running to completely eliminate all federal income and payrolltaxes. And I do mean all - personal federal, corporate federal, gift,estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare,self-employment. All our hours filling out forms, all our payments forhelp with those forms, all our shopping bags filled with disorganizedreceipts, all our headaches and heartburn from tax stress will vanish.Instead we will have the FairTax, a simple tax based on wealth. Whenthe FairTax becomes law, it will be like waving a magic wand releasingus from pain and unfairness.

The FairTax will replace the Internal Revenue Code with aconsumption tax, like the taxes on retail sales forty-five states andthe District of Columbia have now. All of us will get a monthly rebatethat will reimburse us for taxes on purchases up to the poverty line,so that we're not taxed on necessities. That means people below thepoverty line won't be taxed at all. We'll be taxed on what we decide tobuy, not what we happen to earn. We won't be taxed on what we choose tosave or the interest those savings earn. The tax will apply only to newgoods, so we can reduce our taxes further by buying a used car orcomputer.

Our current progressive tax system penalizes us for working harderand becoming more successful. As we climb the ladder, the governmentlurks on each rung, hungry for a bigger bite out of our earnings. TheFairTax is also progressive, but it doesn't punish the American dreamof success, or the old-fashioned virtues of hard work and thrift, itrewards and encourages them. The FairTax isn't intended to raise anymore or less money for the federal government to spend - it is revenueneutral.

Expert analyses have shown that the FairTax lowers the lifetime taxburden of all of us: single or married; working or retired; rich, pooror middle class.

The FairTax will instantly make American products 12 to 25% morecompetitive because the cost of those goods will no longer be inflatedby corporate taxes, costs of tax compliance, and Social Securitymatching payments. When we buy products now, those taxes are built intothe cost, so all of us pay corporate taxes indirectly on top of thepersonal taxes we pay directly. Compliance costs are just make-workwith no real added value, yet they consume as much as 3% of our grossdomestic product annually. These costs are an especially heavy burdenon small businesses, which generate most of our jobs.

If you buy a bottle of domestic wine, you're paying thetaxes/compliance/matching payments of all the folks who produced thegrapes, the wine, the bottle, the cork, the label. If you buy a bottleof French wine, the producers had their Value Added Tax rebated to themwhen the wine was exported. So French consumers pay those taxes, butyou don't. Our current tax system puts our goods at a disadvantage bothhere and overseas. Other governments give their goods an advantage onthe world market, an advantage estimated at 18% compared to Americangoods.

So no matter how hard Americans work, no matter how innovative andcreative we are, no matter how superior our products are, we sufferfrom a built-in competitive disadvantage simply because of our taxsystem. A recent study by MIT found that our tax system deprives us ofabout $1 billion in exports annually. When you export over-priced goodsas we have, you inevitably end up exporting jobs and industries as wenow are. We are the square peg trying to fit into the round hole ofinternational trade. The rest of the world isn't going to change, it'stime that we do.

Under the FairTax, American companies are far less likely to moveoverseas and foreign companies are far more likely to come here, hiringAmericans to build and work in their new plants. The FairTax encouragesgrowth by promoting investment and capital formation.

We have to scrap a 20th century tax system that is holding us backand keeping us down in the 21st century. The FairTax is the path togreater prosperity and job security for us and for our children.

As Governor of Arkansas, I pushed through the Arkansas Legislaturethe first major, broad-based tax cuts in state history - a $90 milliontax relief package for Arkansas families. I also doubled the standarddeduction to $2,000 for single taxpayers and $4,000 for those who aremarried. Some taxes I eliminated entirely: the marriage penalty,bracket creep caused by inflation, income tax on poor families, andcapital gains on home sales. To encourage investment, I cut capitalgains for both individuals and businesses. To help people betterthemselves, I provided tax credits for employee training and education.In total, I cut taxes and fees nearly 100 times during myten-and-a-half years as Governor, saving the people of Arkansas almost$380 million.

When I left office in early 2007, Arkansas had nearly $850 millionin state surplus, which I urged should go back to the people in theform of either a tax rebate or tax cut.

I believe that our massive deficit is not due to Americans' beingunder-taxed, but due to the federal government's over-spending.Achieving and maintaining a balanced federal budget is an important andworthy goal necessary to our long-term economic well-being. To achievea balanced federal budget, I believe the President should have theline-item veto.

I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade. We are losingjobs because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that has to be fixed.Behind the statistics, there are real families and real lives and realpain. I'm running for President because I don't want people who haveworked loyally for a company for twenty or thirty years to walk in onemorning and be handed a pink slip and be told, "I'm sorry, buteverything you spent your life working for is no longer here."

I believe that globalization, done right, done fairly, can be ablessing for our society. As the Industrial Revolution raised livingstandards by allowing ordinary people to buy mass-produced goods thatpreviously only the rich could afford, so globalization gives all of usthe equivalent of a big pay raise by letting us buy all kinds of thingsfrom clothing to computers to TVs much more inexpensively.