I agree with Florida’s governor on most things, but the 23% national sales tax is not one of them. President Trump recently released a truthful ad stating that we would all suffer if Ron DeSantis got his way to pass a 23% national sales tax.

RedState, a conservative media outlet, says the ad is “dishonest” because it fails to point out that DeSantis’s plan federal income taxes and payroll taxes would be eliminated. Titled, “Trump’s MAGA Inc. PAC Drops Dishonest Anti-DeSantis As” it reads:

First and foremost, we need to address the obvious: ‘Ron DeSalesTax’ does not easily roll off the tongue. It’s forced, and you can hear it in the ad itself. The only way they could make it work is with a children’s song that put some natural pause between those syllables. Otherwise, it’s a nightmare to repeatedly say.

Secondly, the ad purports that, as a Congressman, DeSantis wanted to raise everyone’s taxes with a 23 percent sales tax and that, in Biden’s current economy, we’d all be suffering way more as a result of it. Those of you who have paid attention to national politics for more than a few minutes probably understand that this is a reference to some Republican tax plan that would eliminate the income tax. And you’d be right.

The ad refers to the Fair Tax, a proposal that would completely eliminate the income tax and base national tax revenue on sales taxes, which would dramatically increase your costs upfront, as the ad alleges. But what it’s ignoring is the fact that you’d have no money being pulled from every paycheck you get.

The concept of the “fair tax” is that every service and product sold in the private sector would be taxed at 23% (for now). As the writer agrees, the tax would “dramatically increase your costs upfront” — this would destroy the poor and middle classes. Essentially you would get a value added tax at every stage of the economy, and the suggestion is a 23% rate (until it’s inevitably raised).

It is an extremely regressive tax. The rich would do just fine; they have an ample cushion to absorb the “dramatic increase” in costs, but the poor and middle classes don’t. They would not have leftover money to save and invest.

Seniors on fixed income would be devastated. By and large, seniors do not have much income, and therefore they pay low income taxes, and little or no payroll taxes. Yet, they would be forced to pay an additional 23% on everything they buy. 

Here is a short list of things that would be taxed at a 23% rate under DeSantis’s proposal:

Food

Medicine

Hospital care 

Cars 

Houses

Home repairs

Utilities

Telephone

Cable TV

Legal and accounting fees

Bank services

All insurance

In practice: Think of a $50,000 car (average new car price in the Biden economy) where a 23% national sales tax would be added to the local and state sales taxes. If we use a figure of 7% (a common combined sales tax rate), we get around 30% being added to the price of the $50,000 car. This works out to an additional $15,000 cost, which does not add to the value of the car.

Also, every time the car company bought a part to build the car, it too would have a 23% sales tax added to it. What was a $50,000 car is now much more expensive.

It would destroy small businesses because it would essentially encourage big companies to take out suppliers so there would not be as many times to tax a sale.

Think of oil. As the industry is currently structured, there is a driller who sells the product to a pipeline, who then sells it to a refiner, who then sells it to a shipper. Then it goes to a terminal that sells it to a wholesaler, before eventually winding up at the retailer. Essentially it could be taxed 7 times. Exxon or Chevron could potentially take over the whole process from start to finish so it would be taxed once — but then politicians would put an end to this and just raise the tax rate because all they care about is the money and they never have enough.

Between the two systems, the income tax is a much fairer tax because it is based on what you earn in a given year. Europe didn’t get rid of their income tax when they put in a value added tax, because there is never enough for greedy politicians and bureaucrats.

The public is told that if you get rid of income taxes, we could get rid of the IRS and the system would be less complicated. That is a joke. Who would administer and collect this national sales tax? The IRS is undoubtedly political; its agents persecute regime opponents while protecting the elites like the Bidens and the Clintons. They should do their job and administer the tax code. Lobbyists would flood Congress to get exemptions on products, and if lawmakers exempt anything, they would have to raise the 23% elsewhere to compensate.

Think of the incentive for people and businesses to cheat, especially cash businesses, with prohibitive, confiscatory tax rates. How many government bureaucrats would we need to chase down the money?

Stores are already being robbed blind. Think of what happens if an additional 23% tax is added on to the price.

Sadly, DeSantis still supports the tax.

I like most of the things DeSantis does but it is impossible for me to stomach anyone who doesn’t understand the damage that a national sales tax would do.

Democrats want to destructively tax unrealized capital gains and destroy energy companies.

They enrich foreign enemies like Iran, China, and Russia.

They politicize government agencies to target political opponents.

They refuse to enforce border laws.

They strive to handicap as many people as possible, making them dependent upon the government dole. They call capitalism evil and cruel, but what’s actually evil and cruel is promoting generational dependence on handouts.

Trump had excellent tax policies, excellent energy policies, and excellent foreign policies which kept the world relatively peaceful — and he understood the dangers. Think how successful he would have been if the media, never-Trump RINOS, politicized swamp creatures, and other Democrats hadn’t sought to destroy him with lies every day. 

The choice in 2024 gets easier every day. Re-elect Trump or head towards imminent collapse. The “fair tax” is as honest a name as the “inflation reduction act” — don’t be fooled.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.