Church of Scientology and the Fair Tax

Bruce Bartlett is one of my favorite conservatives for reasons like this:

For those who never heard about it, the FairTax is a national retail sales tax that would replace the entire current federal tax system. It was originally devised by the Church of Scientology in the early 1990s as a way to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service, with which the church was then at war (at the time the IRS refused to recognize it as a legitimate religion).

Now that is something I did not know. Bruce is not a fan of the current version of this political fraud. It seems that Senator Chambliss has joined his fellow Georgia wingnut Representative John Linder with some incredible claims:

They assert that a rate of 23% would be sufficient to replace federal individual and corporate income taxes as well as payroll and estate taxes. Mr. Linder’s Web site claims that U.S. gross domestic product will rise 10.5% the first year after enactment, exports will grow by 26%, and real investment spending will increase an astonishing 76%.

Bruce also notes some fuzzy math being practiced by these clowns:

If a product costs $1 at retail, the FairTax adds 30%, for a total of $1.30. Since the 30-cent tax is 23% of $1.30, FairTax supporters say the rate is 23% rather than 30%. This is only the beginning of the deceptions in the FairTax. Under the Linder-Chambliss bill, the federal government would have to pay taxes to itself on all of its purchases of goods and services. Thus if the Defense Department buys a tank that now costs $1 million, the manufacturer would have to add the FairTax

Even with all of this, their FairTax will not be revenue neutral unless the tax rate was set at 57 percent. Is Saxby Chambliss trying to make Zell Miller look good by comparison?