An Open Letter to Americans For Fair Taxation

Dear Leo Linbeck, Tom Wright, Genie Hayes, and anyone else it concerns,

A few short weeks ago my husband and I watched with participatory satisfaction, the Senate vote down the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S.2611).

It is my belief that if it were not for the completely grassroots organized and unorganized outcry of opponents of this amnesty bill that it would have sailed through the Senate. I believe that the grassroots effort of millions of Americans, who were sending faxes, letters, emails and making phone calls to their local and State Representatives, Senators and radio stations regarding the "Amnesty legislation," as well as local protests across the Nation crying for our government to secure our borders in the interest of National security, is solely responsible for getting the attention of those Senators, causing them to sit up and take notice of what the people they represented wanted done and/or would not accept from their Senators.

With this in mind I would like to take to task Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT) for trying to keep grassroots supporters of the FairTax bill from voicing their opinions and demanding that the FairTax, Bill HR 25, become law.

My husband has been very active in supporting the FairTax. At every turn he is met with someone from AFFT who will tell him that this is not the way it is done, or that is not the way it is done. Enough! This is a free country!

While AFFT is a 501c organization, the average citizen grassroots supporter who is NOT on your staff, who is NOT a PAID EMPLOYEE of your organization, is in no way bound by the laws by which that 501c organization is bound, further, AFFT, itself, as a 501c organization, is in a position to fear the IRS, the very government agency which they would like to put out of business. Every action AFFT takes must be considered in light of their abiding of the laws of taxation in our Nation.

The staff and paid employees of AFFT are LOBBYISTS to Congress. If the passage of the FairTax Bill is successful their organization will roll up the sidewalks and go home. In short, their paid staff and paid employees will be OUT OF A JOB. This leaves me to question their intentions, right or wrong.

I am tired of the very organization which was put in place to support the FairTax Bill holding down its supporters, trying to restrict the free speech rights of their supporters and making an effort to keep them under their thumbs. The day that they begin to pay a salary or hourly wage to all of their grassroots supporters is the day they can begin to expect those grassroots supporters to abide by their policies and not a day sooner. For a long time we have honored the wishes of AFFT in its promotion of the FairTax Bill, but the Bill does not seem to get enough steam to become law, the next thing we know there is a NEW Congress and the effort must be started all over again. It is a vicious cycle and appears to be going nowhere under the current policy of promotion.

Regarding the upcoming Orlando, Florida FairTax Rally which is featured at Neal Boortz's blog : 580wdbo.com: Event Guide Neal Boortz Fair Tax Rally, my husband has called Orlando's local radio station with a couple of suggestions and questions. A paid lobbyist for AFFT has just called to let my husband know that it is "causing confusion" when he calls and that AFFT has a policy that only one person from the organization may contact the station. My husband obliged that request. I'll tell you what I would have said to this lobbyist: "The day you are paying me a wage for my opinions, thoughts and ideas regarding FairTax support and promotion is the day that I will abide by your organization's policies."

It is my personal belief that AFFT holds back the cause of the FairTax grassroot supporters. If the treatment my husband has received is any indication of the actions taken by AFFT in an effort to silence the vocal support for the Bill HR 25 then this may be the very reason, or at least a contributory factor, that the FairTax Bill cannot get the support of Senators and therefore passage into law in our Nation.

Is it in the best interest of the FairTax Bill to hold back its supporters and keep them so bound in their support of the FairTax? I have to wonder. Personally, I think there is an argument to be made that it would be in the best interest of Bill HR 25 to let your people go! Stop trying to control the natural inclinations of your grassroots supporters and give them back their own voices without micro-managing their support!

Sincerely,
Jacke M.