I'm sure it was in the legalese.  The whole idea of banning the sale of drugs and/or firearms is unconstitutional, but the lawyers found a way "around" it by stipulating that all sales had to accompany a tax stamp, which were of very limited supply.  I'm pretty sure this was changed later for one reason or another.  (I didn't finish watching the documentary...)

It shows that something can be unconstitutional in intent, but technically worked around.

The elastic clause and the commerce clause have been used by the federal government in combination to provide funding to states that play by their rules. Just remember, we tried being a Confederacy once, and we know how that played out.

Whoa annual income does not equal annual spending. I imagine, i don't have a source, that someone making 60,000 a year probably spends close to all their income as opposed to someone making 1 million a year. Unless we are talking about taxing investment purchases, like stock as well. Everyone on the forbes 400 would love this because it would lower their taxation. There is no fair tax, just illusions. Flat tax seems fair, but then we would have to raise taxation on social security and medicare above 95k because then someone making 95k or less would be paying a higher percent of total income to federal taxes than someone making 200k.

My friend who is an accountant hates this idea of fair tax.

^What a bump.

Also, of course he hates it. He would lose his job. The nice thing about the fair tax is that it is so very easy to comply with. Right now a company would have to hire a fleet of accountants to figure out how much tax was really owed. Under the fair tax, one person with a calculator would just have to do one simple calculation: X * Y = Z where x = revenue, y = fair tax rate, and z = tax owed.

Also, it's easier to enforce. Right now the IRS has to hire a phalanx of accoutants to enforce the current tax code on 150M+ individuals. Under the Fair Tax the IRS will need a much smaller fleet to enforce the fair tax on a couple hundred thousand businesses, if that.

Id prefer income tax and no taxes on anything else. Property tax is the most f**ked up thing ever. Buy a house pay it in full, fail to pay property tax, gov't takes your house away, making you homeless.