Maybe it's because I live in Ohio and it's super conservative, but my sister is a teacher and I've seen and heard from my niece and nephew what they are being taught in school. If my sister or any of her kids' teachers gave them those kind of questionnaires or were teaching that kind of ideology, they'd be fired.

NC is mostly conservative voter-wise but somehow sees a lot of Democrat governors. Asheville is considered the east coast version of San Francisco. It's a weird state. Our local school board is in the hot seat for this information that is coming out. Like, people are freaking the freak out. And for good reason. But that's for another topic.

I can see why. That stuff has no place in schools. In my area of Ohio, they'd be fired. It's largely a conservative farming community.

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A flat tax is based on income.  The Fair Tax is based on consumption.  The difference is with a "flat tax" you are basically penalizing someone for making a good salary even if they choose to save their money rather than spend it.  It also only applies to people actually earning an income.

The Fair Tax on the other hand taxes people on what they spend, not what they earn.  It also applies to those not earning income.  Think the "underground economy" such as illegal aliens working for cash, prostitutes, drug dealers, etc.  Any time anyone buys something new they are taxed.  The rate would be the same for ALL people, not just those that actually earn an income.  Go buy a new car?  You get taxed X% whether it's a $20,000.00 car or a $100,000.00 car.

That's a very brief explanation of it and the basic idea of it.

You will never mature as a citizen as long as you keep calling taxes penalties.
A penalty is something the government charges you with for your specific situation because you specifically did something wrong, like when I made a mistake on my taxes.
But when everyone who earns a certain amount of money or spends a certain amount of money has to pay the same thing, that's not a penalty anymore. That's just a tax.
Anyhow, you're right that taxing sales makes the base broader and ropes in people who don't pay federal taxes today.
But there's another group of people, that does file federal taxes, but has a very low wage. They might be paying less than 10% of their income in federal taxes now. It would be nice to tell them they can pay zero income tax, but if you turn around and make them pay a 25% or 30% federal sales tax, obviously that's not a good deal for them.

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I think you got scammed.

The check said pay to the order of United States Treasury. 
I can't imagine a bank would cash such a check without proper identification. Plus the letter had really specific information about what numbers were on what line of my 1040.
If that was all from a fraudster, I tell you it was the ballsiest fraudster I ever heard of.

The Fair Tax proposal is designed to "prebate" the tax on poverty level spending with a monthly check for all households. That way the lowest income households pay no tax on most or all of their monthly expenditures.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

You will never mature as a citizen as long as you keep calling taxes penalties.
A penalty is something the government charges you with for your specific situation because you specifically did something wrong, like when I made a mistake on my taxes.
But when everyone who earns a certain amount of money or spends a certain amount of money has to pay the same thing, that's not a penalty anymore. That's just a tax.
Anyhow, you're right that taxing sales makes the base broader and ropes in people who don't pay federal taxes today.
But there's another group of people, that does file federal taxes, but has a very low wage. They might be paying less than 10% of their income in federal taxes now. It would be nice to tell them they can pay zero income tax, but if you turn around and make them pay a 25% or 30% federal sales tax, obviously that's not a good deal for them.

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The check said pay to the order of United States Treasury. 
I can't imagine a bank would cash such a check without proper identification. Plus the letter had really specific information about what numbers were on what line of my 1040.
If that was all from a fraudster, I tell you it was the ballsiest fraudster I ever heard of.

The Fair Tax proposal is designed to "prebate" the tax on poverty level spending with a monthly check for all households. That way the lowest income households pay no tax on most or all of their monthly expenditures.

We would still be filling out long forms with all sorts of details about how much money we make, how we make it, and how our household is structured, so the government could determine how much "prebate" we get. Frankly I don't see the advantage.
While Bush was president, he commissioned a study of this issue. He found that if the prebate was small, the tax burden shifted very heavily to the poorest people. As they made the pre-bate bigger, the burden shifted away from the poorest people and towards the middle class. Either way, the tax burden on the rich was much less. 
Which is similar to how it would be with a flatter income tax

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

The Fair Tax proposal is designed to "prebate" the tax on poverty level spending with a monthly check for all households. That way the lowest income households pay no tax on most or all of their monthly expenditures.

We would still be filling out long forms with all sorts of details about how much money we make, how we make it, and how our household is structured, so the government could determine how much "prebate" we get. Frankly I don't see the advantage.
While Bush was president, he commissioned a study of this issue. He found that if the prebate was small, the tax burden shifted very heavily to the poorest people. As they made the pre-bate bigger, the burden shifted away from the poorest people and towards the middle class. Either way, the tax burden on the rich was much less. 
Which is similar to how it would be with a flatter income tax

No we wouldn't, the prebate is the same for every household. Every household gets the prebate in the amount of e.g. $1,000 that represents the 20% tax on the first $5,000 the household spends each month. That poverty level spending threshold is determined by the COL based on geography sort of like how Medicare adjusts payments to physicians based on where they practice. Every dollar earned comes home, every dollar spent over the threshold gets taxed as sales tax.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

NYT's Hit Piece Includes Its Own Fact Check: Trump Paid $1 Million in 2016 and $4.2 Million in 2017 to US Treasury

The New York Times never lets the facts get in the way of a good story – it just buries them so far down no one will see.

https://www.westernjournal.com/nyts-hit-...WzjXLZv01c

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NYT's Hit Piece Includes Its Own Fact Check: Trump Paid $1 Million in 2016 and $4.2 Million in 2017 to US Treasury

The New York Times never lets the facts get in the way of a good story – it just buries them so far down no one will see.

https://www.westernjournal.com/nyts-hit-...WzjXLZv01c

You know how Trump could avoid all this?  Just publish his tax returns, like every other President in modern history.  

The other thing I would say is, according to your article, it turned out he didn't owe any taxes for 2016 and 2017.  So he left the money on deposit in case he needed to pay taxes in later years.  Basically, that means he once again paid no taxes for 2016 and 2017.  He has prepaid some potential/possible taxes for 2018 and later years, but not for 2016 and 2017.  He could actually get that money refunded if we wants to.

Look, the upshot of the NY Times article is that for a guy who claims to be so damn successful, Trump doesn't seem to be actually making any money.  He's just borrowing a lot.  

And again, who does he owe the $300 million to?  Why won't he tell us?

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