David Cay Johnston - Problems with a "Fair Tax" May 13, 2008

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Complete Video at: http://fora.tv/2008/04/14/David_Cay_Johnston_Talks_About_Free_Lunch

Author David Cay Johnston criticizes plans to replace income taxes with a "fair tax," otherwise known as a national retail sales tax.

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Since 1995 when David Cay Johnston turned his investigative reporting skills to explore the murky waters of tax law, Some tax policy officials now consider him, as one tax law professor put it, "the de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States."

Johnston will detail how a strong and growing economy lends itself to job uncertainty, debt, bankruptcy, and economic fear for a vast number of Americans. As tax season draws to a close, come find out who is getting a free lunch and who is picking up the bill - The Commonwealth Club of California

David Cay Johnston was an investigative journalist for The New York Times now focusing on the subject of taxation. He accepted a buyout offer from the Times in April 2008 and is now an independent reporter.

He most recently published Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill, about hidden subsidies, rigged markets, and corporate socialism. It follows Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else, a New York Times bestseller. Johnston received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms." He also won the Book of the Year award from Investigative Reporters & Editors.

Robert Saldich is the Chair of the Board of Governors at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, CA.