…and this time it’s none other than Dave Ramsey.

The FairTax is a bold proposal. It is only natural that people are going to try to criticize it. Is it too much to ask for these people to do at least a modicum of research so that they at least appear to know what they’re talking about?

This time the culprit is Dave Ramsey. I like the guy, and I like his approach. His sermons on living debt free are right on, and no doubt he’s helped millions of people to improve their financial. OK, mighty fine. But now he’s taken it upon himself to opine that the FairTax simply isn’t, in his words, “fair.”

Let’s take this quote from Ramsey’s article: “People would only pay taxes on items they buy, except for food, basic clothing and other kinds of necessities.” Most of the FairTax supporters know that this is just flat-out wrong. The explanation is incomplete. If Ramsey really was informed on the FairTax he would know that you pay taxes only on items that you buy at the retail level, and that food, basic clothing and other kinds of necessities are included. Ramsey would also know about the prebate. He would know that every household in this country – that is, every legal household – would get a credit or check from the Treasury Department every single month equal to the FairTax they would be expected to pay on the basic necessities of life during the following month. This FairTax prebate is so essential to the FairTax plan that to ignore it, or to be unaware of it entirely, is worse than careless.

Ramsey also writes of the FairTax “This means it’s more of a burden on poor people, because they would pay a higher percentage of their overall income.” Sorry, wrong. The poor, poor pitiful poor would pay virtually nothing – zero percent of their income – to the federal government. [ALERT! Brilliant thought follows!] To pay any taxes at all to the feds the poor would have to spend above the poverty level. If they’re doing that they’re not poor. Pretty easy, isn’t it? I wonder why Dave Ramsey doesn’t get it? Is there a chance he just shot from the hip here without doing any real research? The FairTax deserves better than this flippant, uninformed treatment.

Dave Ramsey could be a good proponent of the FairTax. He’s very bright, and he would recognize the beauty of this plan if he just would take the time to actually study it. Knowing what you’re talking about – Is that too much to ask?

Weird, this audio clip on YouTube seems to show Ramsey supporting the FairTax. Huh. Maybe he’s lost changed his mind since that was recorded.