Ask Mike Huckabee about his tax plan and he'll talk about pimps and prostitutes.

The Republican presidential candidate often says that one of the selling points of his plan to replace the federal income tax with a 23 percent sales tax is that it would force those who deal in cash to pay taxes.

"You end the underground economy," Huckabee said at a recent luncheon for the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce. "Illegals, prostitutes, pimps, gamblers, drug dealers - everybody pays taxes."

In reality, his plan isn't that simple. Known as the Fair Tax among its backers, it's supported by many economists as more efficient than the current system. But even the economists, and the tax's staunchest supporters, admit that the Fair Tax is a political nonstarter. The chances that Congress would overhaul the entire tax code are slim to none, they say.

"This will not be enacted by Congress unless the American people rise up and demand it," said Ken Hoagland, the spokesman for FairTax.org. "Congress is not willing to give up its power."

The Fair Tax is arguably Huckabee's most radical proposal. On most issues, he holds standard Republican positions: He's for overturning Roe v. Wade, protecting Second Amendment rights and building fences on the U.S. border.

But his opponents have criticized his record on taxes. While governor of Arkansas, Huckabee raised taxes on gas and cigarettes to pay for schools and roads. His rivals have pounced on his mixed record - he cut some taxes, too - and analysts say the Fair Tax may be Huckabee's attempt to win back support.

Taxes are "one of those issues that helps with conservatives," said Wayne Lesperance, an associate professor of political science at New England College. "Huckabee doesn't have to do that with social issues . . . but where he has proven to be vulnerable is on fiscal matters. (The Fair Tax) could be seen as an effort to confirm or create his credentials as a fiscal conservative.

"It does set him apart."

Bob Clegg, a state senator and Huckabee backer, said if Huckabee were trying to court fiscal conservatives, he would stick by the current system. That's what most of his opponents have done, claiming the solution to the country's fiscal problems is to cut some taxes and abolish others.

"If (Huckabee) wanted to garner the favor of that (fiscal conservative) wing of Republican Party, he'd drop the Fair Tax and say the current system is not that good but it's the one we have," Clegg said.

Instead, Huckabee talks passionately about eliminating the income tax altogether.

"I'd like you to join me at the best 'Going Out Of Business' sale I can imagine - one held by the Internal Revenue Service," Huckabee says on his website. "When the Fair Tax becomes law, it will be like waving a magic wand releasing us from pain and unfairness."

The Fair Tax would levy a one-time 23 percent tax on all new goods and services. It's what economists call a consumption tax, a tax on what people buy instead of what they earn. Developed more than a decade ago by a group bent on coming up with the next great tax structure, the Fair Tax would wipe out income taxes of any kind.

It would also eliminate all tax deductions and exemptions. Proponents say that aspect is offset by a built-in "prebate," which would reimburse everyone, from Bill Gates to a $10-an-hour sales clerk, for the amount of tax they would pay on purchases up to the poverty level. Essentially, proponents say, necessities would be tax-free for the poorest Americans. And, they say, the richest Americans - the ones who buy $1 million yachts - would be hit hardest.

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