Ways and Means to Hold Hearings - Finally!
In order to move the FairTax Act to the floor of the House for a vote, the bill needs to be voted out of the House Committee on Ways and Means. The bill has been essentially ignored by most committee members until just recently. FairTax volunteers met with the chairman of the committee, Rep. David Camp of Michigan last week. As a result of that meeting the Committee Chairman has agreed to schedule hearings and take testimony in July. Lets hope it actually happens. Below is a statement released to the press.
MI FairTax officers meet with Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Ways & Means
U.S. Congressman Dave Camp (MI-4) met with Roger Buchholtz (national FairTax spokesperson & MI FairTax Association President), Ron Babin (MFTA V.P.), and Randy Bishop (Tea party leader and 4th District constituent). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss having a Ways and Means Committee hearing on the FairTax Act, HR25 in July, 2011. The FairTax Act currently has 61 Cosponsors in the US House.
Full hearings would include testimony by economists, tax experts and legislators knowledgeable about the FairTax at an open, publicized Committee hearing.
The purpose of the FairTax is to remove the embedded tax costs (Personal and Corporate) that come from the income based tax structure in order to make American goods more competitive around the world, create jobs, all while raising the same revenue through a visible national sales tax on individuals consumption above their poverty level. Visit www.fairtax.org for more information.
Roger Buchholtz, President
Michigan FairTax Association
Send an e-mail or pick up the phone and give Congressman Dave Camp a call (202)224-3121 or the Committee office itself. You can find that information here
. Or select one of Wisconsins Delegates on the Committee and let them know: Congressman Paul Ryan or Congressman Ron Kind.
Networking Events in Minneapolis - Volunteers Needed
After recieving funding from the national FairTax grassroots organizations for events we have 2 coming up in Minneapolis that we need help with. They are both being held the third weekend in June. If you can help man the booth at either of these events please let me know by clicking smartytax@sbcglobal.net
right now. As a volunteer your ticket in will be paid for. If you are more interested in attending either conference you’ll be able to participate in some great breakout sessions and very possibly interject the FairTax into the discussions at these sessions. Ticket and lodging information can be found at the links below. If you can assist at either event your ticket may include some meals.
We are hoping to have some new technologies available for registering new supporters and fundraising at these events, so stay tuned.
Again, please contact me right away so we can get these events squared away. I would sure like to show the Southeast States that the Midwest is every bit as supportive of the FairTax effort.
If you have issues talking to people of other political persuassions than your own, please volunteer appropriately. Remember, our goal is to educate people on all sides of the proverbial isle. We will be on hand to provide them the information and evidence available to allow them to decide for themselves the merits of the FairTax Act. Statistics show that once informed upwards of 85% of people show a favorable opinion of the FairTax.
Progressive Grassroots Targeting
The first event is Netroots Nation
. This event is a four day event running from 8:30 am Thursday June 16th through 3 pm Saturday June 18th. Jerry Nielsen will be the go to Committee Chair for this event. This is billed as a convention for the progressive causes. There are some great breakouts scheduled for this event including "Effective E-mailing", Use of Social Media, Organizing Online and a lot more on electronic media. Volunteers for this event will have to pay for admission if they are interested in attending sessions. If you are only interested in volunteering with the FairTax booth your admission will be covered. Contact Jerry by e-mail
jerryniels@gmail.com.
Conservative Grassroots Targeting
The second event is RightOnline
. This is "a project of Americans for Prosperity Foundation dedicated to advancing liberty and prosperity for all Americans through greater citizen participation online". This event runs from 8:30am Friday June 17th through 5 pm Saturday June 18th. Click on the image to see updated details for RightOnline
. They are still working out details but will have many similar breakout sessions and we will have an exhibitors booth. I will be the go to Chairman for this event. You can contact me directly by e-mail smartytax@sbcglobal.net.
Wisconsin State Events
We are registered for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair and need volunteers for that booth. It runs from July 13-17. We also desperately want to be at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee August 4-14, but there are bigger hurdles to doing this one. If you can volunteer to help us there please contact us ask@WisconsinFairTax.org
. We will not be applying for a site unless enough people come forward to volunteer in the exhibit booth. The volunteer work is fairly easy and involves handing out information and registering any would be supporters. We are hoping to have cell phone capture available to make registering supporters even easier.
If you would like to sponsor and manage a booth at a local State or County Fair contact us and we will see about getting you set up to do it. The volunteer base is growing and we may be able to find some local contacts to help you get it done.
POPVOX Challenge
We introduced you to a new tool last month on our Facebook page called POPVOX. It allows you to give Congress your vote or opinion on current legislation. The feed for this site is made available to our Congress on the floor while they do their job.
A few states have issued a challenge and touted their performance on this site. They very well may have influenced the last 2 sponsors to get on board using this site. We have a couple Congressman on the fence in Wisconsin and maybe this site will be just the thing to help get them over to our side. Take a few minutes to register and vote today. You just never know who might be influenced by your vote.
Take the FairTax fight to the people, transparency in taxation and job creation.
Sincerely,
Bob Martin
Wisconsin State Director
Americans for Fair Taxation
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