“Raising tax rates and instituting new taxes does not increase revenue to the govt. Ever heard of the laffer curve?”
Unfortunately that only applies to high-end tax payers, not the lower classes that are either paying nothing, or less than nothing (as in EIC). That is why most European countries now have lower top-end marginal rates than even us, but hit the crap out of their lower classes - they know where the money is and who will be forced to pay.
(by the way, I just read today that union membership is even further down...seems like they’re still doing a great job of shutting down manufacturing here - good news to some of us)
You are thinking in terms of the progressive income tax. VAT taxes hit low and high together.