Republican DeMint wants to scrap the 45,000-page federal income tax code and replace it with a national sales tax of up to 23 percent.

Tenenbaum, a Democrat, isn't against tax cuts but says going to a national sales tax will shift the tax burden more heavily to beginning families and the middle class, which does most of the shopping in America.

"This plan really is a sham," said Tenenbaum, the state's superintendent of education, on WSC-FM News Radio.

DeMint's proposal would eliminate the deductions that families now enjoy on home mortgage interest, child-care costs and tuition.

Additionally, Tenenbaum said it would add 23 cents to every dollar spent on gasoline, food, toys, clothes, cars and other goods necessary in today's economy.

DeMint countered that Americans actually would have more money in their pockets as a result of losing the tax code because the thousands of dollars of yearly tax burden they pay would be eliminated.

Payroll taxes and money deducted for Social Security also would disappear, as would corporate taxes, which DeMint said would reduce business costs up and down the line.

"America would become the best place in the world to do business because there would no corporate tax," said DeMint, the 4th District U.S. congressman from Green-ville. He signed the national sales tax bill in the House of Representatives.

In stinging words, DeMint also told the listening audience that Tenenbaum "hasn't been in business, and she doesn't know what she is talking about when it comes to taxes and economics."

With less than 60 days before the Nov. 2 election, the future of the Internal Revenue Service has become the dominant issue of the past month as the two campaigns jockey to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings.

Both candidates are spending part of the Labor Day weekend on the coast, a region that would be particularly hard hit by the sales tax, Tenenbaum said, because it would add 23 percent to the cost of travel, hotel rooms and meals for tourists.DeMint said Tenenbaum has offered no significant tax reform of her own, so she is picking on one of several ideas he supports to cut taxes.

DeMint also wants to create a Tax Reform Action Commission that would evaluate alternative methods of taxing Americans with a mandate to replace the current system.

Tenenbaum said the sales tax idea may play well with conservative think tanks but said few economists have signed on, and that it wouldn't be practical in the real world.

"It's an increase on the middle class and there's no getting around it," she said.

DeMint said he wanted to take the sales tax to the Senate to get the debate going.

"Right now the Senate is a place where good ideas go to die, and I want to change that," he said.

The one-hour broadcast was carried live by other stations across South Carolina.

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