Why does Joe the Plumber hate me?

I really should be writing a paper on criminal tax evaders, but I have to discuss this news: Joe the Plumber is holding an election to abolish the IRS.

Joe has started a new web site on which you can vote to keep the IRS or abolish it. It costs 99 cents to vote though, so bring your credit card. He promises the vote will not be ignored. He's going to take the results and lobby with them to Congress. He's hoping to get 200 million votes with 75% voting to abolish the IRS. (Note: There are only 300 million Americans, and only 133 million showed up to vote in the 2008 election. However, since Joe's system allows voting by text message, you can vote as many times as you like - as long as you pay the 99 cent fee. It's like American Idol!)

Joe's hope is to take the results of the vote to Congress to show them that the will of the people is to instill the "Fair Tax," a somewhat progressive consumption tax. The site has lots of facts and figures about the Fair Tax, though it provides no citations. One dubious claim is that the Fair Tax would increase consumption. Consumption taxes throughout history have shown that they actually decrease consumption, whereas income taxes encourage spending. The opposite is also true: generally, income taxes typically discourage saving, while consumption taxes encourage it. In the United States, the Federal government has an income tax, and most consumption taxes are left up to the states and localities. States like Texas get all their income from consumption taxes. This sort of balance of Federal income tax with state consumption taxes ensures that the government can attempt to stay neutral and not affect whether people spend or save based on taxes.

Since there are no citations, it is difficult to evaluate the accuracy of Joe's claim that the Fair Tax would make all our lives so much better. However, some of his facts on the list "15 Interesting Facts about the IRS" are totally inaccurate. For example, number 12 states that the average family pays over 38% of income to the IRS. This fact is nowhere near true. Even the highest tax bracket of 36% (which, under Obama, will increase to 39%, the rate this tax bracket paid under Reagan), pay an effective tax of 9.2% according to the Wall Street Journal after all the deductions and losses are taken. Joe also is in error when he states in number 15 that Tax Day is April 15th because although that fact is technically true, it is not an interesting fact about the IRS.

My favorite part of the site is where Joe breaks down their expenses and how they will spend the 99 cents they get from your vote. Fifty-five percent will go to telecom service providers; 20% will go toward advertising and promotions (You can get a free T-shirt if you vote now!); 10% to payment collection (a funny one considering he isn't too fond of how much the IRS spends on payment collection, which, by the way, amounts to 1% of what they collect); 7% goes to production costs and their salaries; and 8% is "Leftover after other costs." I love that one.

Oh, Joe. I know you are still needing to stay in the limelight so that you can run for Congress in 2 years, but really? You've essentially become the equivalent of those commercials that ask me to text "JOKE" to a number to get back the funny joke of the day. Maybe this is my fault. I expected more from Joe the Plumber.