For quite a while, one of John Oxendine’s big campaign issues was the FairTax. Indeed, back during the time I was doing the ‘John Oxendine and Liberty‘ series, there were four main headings on his website at the time, and FairTax was the one that got no attention then, as I wanted to explore it in detail outside of that particular series. (Ox’s site was later redone into the current incarnation, and SWGAPolitics.com claimed credit for the re-tooled issues page in particular.)
But things have changed with that particular issue in relation to the Governor’s race. For one thing, Nathan Deal jumped into the race at the beginning of May – and he is a co-sponsor of the FairTax bill in Congress right now.
Most recently, just this past Friday (Aug 7, 2009), Karen Handel sent out an email saying:
Congress Should Pass the FairTax Now
If Congress and the Obama Administration were serious about creating jobs, stimulus and helping the economy they would pass the Fair Tax which would help GA businesses and families immediately.
Note that she then proceeded to state “Read about my position on the FairTax in the issues section of my website.” – and yet FairTax is never mentioned explicitly on that page as of when I type this post.
State Senator Eric Johnson, one of the other candidates for the GOP nomination for GAGOV, however, told SWGAPolitics.com when we sat down for an interview earlier this summer that “It’s been 19 years since Georgia did a comprehensive study of their tax code and we can’t do FairTax state wide. I’ve talked to [US Rep John] Linder [R-GA-7] about that. That’s going to have to be a national program.” Note here that Rep Linder, is a co-author, along with Neal Boortz, of The Fair Tax Book – which is the very book that most FairTax supporters will direct you to when they begin to lose a debate on the issue.
So in the Georgia gubernatorial race, we have John Oxendine, Nathan Deal, and Karen Handel all supporting the FairTax, and Eric Johnson (correctly) saying that it is a national issue, not an issue for a Governor of Georgia – and that the idea’s official sponsor in Congress, John Linder, agrees with him.
I just spoke with Austin Scott, who says that he opposes the FairTax but supports a Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution.
I also just spoke with Jenny Hodges, Ray McBerry‘s campaign manager, who said that Ray also believes the FairTax is a national issue though she also directed me to Ray’s Tax Issues page. We plan to speak more on this issue tomorrow, as she was very busy at the moment getting ready for Ray’s weekly campaign conference call update.
