The American Prospect's Ezra Klein took a look at Mike Huckabee's FairTax plan and came away as summarily unimpressed as I was. Again, there are three main bullet points to the Huck's economic plan: (1) abolish the IRS, (2) impose a sales tax in the neighborhood of 30%, and (3) issue each and every American a monthly "prebate" check to render basic living expenses tax free. (I think Ezra is being too casual in dismissing prebates as "a minor...scheme that's not really worth going into." To start, it seems to me that we the people have a legitimate interest in which government agency President Huckabee will have us depending on for our monthly living stipends.) Guided by smarter economic minds than mine, I'm not entirely unconvinced that a hefty consumption tax couldn't possibly work in this county. But there's no sign anywhere that Huckabee himself understands his plan enough to actual lead its responsible implementation. Maybe Chuck Norris is working on a detailed policy package. Dunno.

And that in my mind is what's most striking about Huckabee's FairTax plan. It's not so much the economics, It's the mystery of it all. The press presents Ron Paul as an absurd looney tunes for economic proposals that are only slightly more extremist than Huckabee's. The Huck smiles, says something clever, and seems to get a free pass. I admit to having missed a few of the million Republican debates this cycle, but I'm pretty sure that Huckabee hasn't been anywhere near properly grilled about this economic scheme. That may have been fine when he was an asterisk in this race, but that's risky business now that he's one of three Republican frontrunners. (Photo by yaquina under a Creative Commons license.)