Well, we’re at that time of year, where the airwaves are saturated with tax-preparation and tax-software advertisements featuring happy people waving their tax refund checks in the air.

One would think that if they were to consider how much money was taken from them in the first place, their mood would be a little more somber.

Apropos, I bought The FairTax a few weeks back, skeptical about the concept as I understood it, but trying to be open-minded. I read the book looking for the “deadly hand-wave”, the dismissal of critical assumptions by simply skipping lightly over them.

There weren’t any.

The whole concept is well-researched, well-intentioned, and intelligently presented. Potential “deadly hand-waves” are replaced with in-depth tracking of the assumptions made and the historical precedents behind their thinking. Boortz makes it entertaining– even where he reins in his predictable opinions on certain highly-partisan topics– and Representative Linder’s co-authorship lends serious credibility to the movement.

So I suggest you read it. The book is short enough that practically anyone could finish it in a week of spare-time reading.

But if even that is too much for you right now, spend five minutes reading the FairTax FAQ, or the first page of the plain English summary.

You’re going to start hearing a lot of debate over this issue in the coming weeks, as the grassroots support continues to grow. If you take nothing else from this post, take my word on this: Anyone who attacks this plan by claiming that it will increase your taxes is either misinformed or outright lying. Whatever else may be up for debate, FairTax was designed from its inception to bring the same amount of revenue to the government as it receives right now.

So, yes, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a convert.