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Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



30 minutes away

Posted: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 8:33 PM by Mark Murray

COLUMBIA, SC -- It's less than 30 minutes before kickoff -- and that's an apt metaphor, because the atmosphere outside the Koger Center is much like a football game.

Thousands of of people -- the anti-tax group Fair Tax say they have 7,000 alone -- are chanting for their favorite candidate, hollering, and banging cowbells. Game on.

***Update*** Readers, thanks for the clarification. I should have said anti-federal income tax group.

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There's a side-by-side comparison of previous debate questions for the Dem's and Rep's at www.dailykos.com/ Take a look if you want to see how the ref's are gamed.
Nuts, no one was chanting for their candidate.We interviewed about 50. No cow bells just a bunch of very sober, diverse, and very smart people who went out of there way on a work day to get the message across. There was one Santa...from Ohio, very articulate and burning up in a red suit. cw
Mark, the FairTax advocates are not as you say..."anti-tax". Nor are we looking for tax cuts as many people think. The FairTax is simply a tax reform and would replace our current system and repeal the 16th admendment. It's simple to understand, especially compared to the impossible to understnd 60,000 page code we live with now.
Mark, you need to check out the FairTax website and revise the article. According the the home page of http://fairtax.org the FairTax is not anti-tax at all. It's a replacement with a common sense system compared to the horrible one we all know we have now. "The FairTax Plan is a nonpartisan national grassroots campaign to replace the federal income tax system with a progressive national retail sales tax. It provides a "prebate" to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue replacement and, through companion legislation, repeal of the 16th Amendment."
Hey Mark, Have you got a relative named Jay Bookman in your family tree who works for the Atlanta Journal Constitution? Your instructions about attacking the comments of others are indicated by your ignorance about the subject your trying to write your articles about.Especially your idiotic comments about the Fair Tax. You should wear a shirt which says NBC DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR-AND STILL NO CLUE on it.Not one of the Fair Tax people was there endorsing a candidate like you said. Your as clueless as the lady reporter who asked me Why I would want to raise the price of everything by raising taxes by 23%. I let her have it with both barrels. At least if I were interviewing anyone over a subject I wouldn't stand there like a dodo bird. Go to FAIR TAX.ORG and read up on something you have no clue about.My wife and I drove from Dayton, Ohio just to support the Fair Tax cause .How about going to the Fair Tax web site,it won't cost you anything.
KISS. YOU BUY A NEW CAR PAY A LOT TAX BECAUSE IT NEW. YOU BUY A USED CAR PAY TAX AGAIN. FAIRTAX COMES IN EFFECT. BUYER OF NEW CAR PAYS TAXES. YOU BUY USED CAR NO TAXS. YOU ONLY PAY TAX ON CAR ONCE AND THAT IS THE ORIGINAL BUYER. I SEE THIS AS A WAY OF CONTROLING MY MONEY. DO I NEED A NEW CAR? A ONE YEAR OLD CAR SAY, 33% DEPRATION 4 TO 8% SALES TAX= 41% SAVING ON A YEAR OLD CAR. THIS CAN APPLY TO A LOT OF ITEMS YOU BUY. PLUS NO INCOME TAX, SS TAX, MEDICARE. HAY, IF YOU WANT TO USE THAT OLD CLINTON PRASE," ITS FOR THE CHILDERN". FAIRTAX IS THE ANSWER.
The Fair Tax Act, will insure that the working poor pay NO taxes and will give them an immediate pay raise by not witholding federal income, social security, or medicare taxes from their paychecks. That's quite a pay raise and it won't take a room full of K Street lobbyists to hand it to them. And by the way, the wealthy won't have any tax loopholes to hide behind. Businesses from all over the world will rush to set up headquaters in the US because they will no longer have a tax burden to consider or the huge expenses they incur trying to comply with current tax laws. We will all benefit by the reduced price of everything we already buy because income taxes will no longer be built into the retail price. Think about that for a moment. The manufacturer, the transportation, the marketing, and the retailer have all added their employees taxes to the cost of everything they sell. Suddenly those costs will be gone and the price of the item will come down. Another benefit, EVERYONE who visits this country will pay that sales tax and help bolster the federal treasury. And finally the people who don't report income or file taxes will suddenly contribute their fair share. Think Underground Economy!!!


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