For those who were participating in the conversation about the FairTax below, here's the response I received from one of their representatives regarding the repeal of the 16th amendment:

Dear Scott,

       Hello, I'm District Coordinator for the 18th Congressional District in PA and your question was forwarded to me for a response.

       With respect to the 16th Amendment.........there are several points we need to cover.  I understand your concern......and shared it at one time......but I now believe it to be unfounded.

       First,  You correctly observe that there is nothing stopping the government from implementing a sales tax while retaining / maintaining the income tax now.  Indirect, consumption based taxation (National Sales Tax) was in fact what the Founders envisioned for the US......and it's written into the body of the Constitution.  All the 16th Amendment really does is permit the Fed's to go further, and allows for the DIRECT, UNAPPORTIONED taxation of our income.  The 16th Amendment is what allows them to reach into your paycheck before you've seen a dime of it, and feast on the first fruits of your labor....and it must be repealed, in time.

       Second, you also correctly observe that HR 25 does not repeal the 16th Amendment directly because only a simple majority is required to pass this tax act........but a SUPER majority is required to pass a Constitutional Amendment.  We don't want to stall the passage of this bill, which will abolish the IRS and the Internal Revenue Code  (those are two very important goals of HR 25) while waiting for a Constitutional Amendment to pass.  So, you are correct, passage of HR 25 without the repeal of the 16th Amendment will leave the door open to future, direct, unapportioned, taxation of income.

       Third,  We have been told by House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, that he will use some procedural device, which I confess I do not fully understand, to link the two bills (HR 25 and Repeal of the 16th Amendment) so that effectively one will not become law without the other.  I confess to having a disagreement of opinion on this point........as I believe that the abolition of the IRS and repeal of Title 26 of the US Code (Internal Revenue Code) are laudable goals in their own right.  Even if, you assume for sake of argument, that the US Congress decided to re-impose the Income tax on some disfavored group........it couldn't possibly be any worse than what we have today. 

       I passed the CPA exam in 1992, and for the last 5 years I've been a student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh........studying Taxation and Law.  God willing, I will graduate next June with a dual degree......MS Taxation and a J.D.  I've spent a lot of time and money studying this monstrosity.........and I am absolutely convinced that if you set about the task of designing a complex, convoluted, inefficient, burdensome system of taxation.........you couldn't do any better than what we currently inflict upon ourselves.  In my humble opinion, Title 26 and the IRS must go even if we do not repeal the 16th Amendment immediately.

       Worst case scenario as I see it, is that HR 25 fails to pass, and we are left with this mess.  A slightly better scenario involves passage of HR 25 and the imposition of a sales tax with a significantly streamlined income tax (Remember, HR 25 repeals all but a small piece of Title 26), better yet......a sales tax with no income tax in place but with the 16th amendment in place.......best solution.........a sales tax concurrent with repeal of the 16th.  There is a spectrum of possibilities here.  I guess the best analogy I can use is to a war with a series of battles........I think we need to fight each battle in turn........and win the war by winning the battles...hence we need to pass HR 25 if at all possible.

       I hope I've answered your question.......if not, please feel free to reply. 

All the best,  Betty Male, PA - 18th Congressional District Coordinator