I smell "Trial balloon" and the AA fire and flak is already zeroing in... ;-]
Please, no national sales tax. It will do only bad things. It will discourage spending, it will annoy the taxpayer who will be constantly remineded that there is a 17% tax on their purchases, it will make the poor think that the pubbies don't want to tax the rich, the dems will see it as too effective of a fundraiser, the dems will raise it and manipulate it, we will have the sales tax and all the other taxes, the states will piggyback, it is madness.
Geez, another one. Yesterday they resurrected the illegal alien amnesty plan; I guess the mission to Mars is coming next week.
"AA fire"
-- From an Airmen, it's AAA fire.
I believe that Hastert was actually the trial balloon. I've been predicting to friends that Bush will discuss this during his speech at the GOP Convention. He's needs something big for his second term, and the WOT is already a given. I can easily see him saying something like... "And by 2007, we are going to abolish the IRS". The ovation would last for about half-an-hour, and it gives Dubya the agenda until the election. Taxes are the main way that the people interact with the government, and creating such a fundemental change would dominate the news cycles for weeks.
Swing voters and independents would all move to the Bush column, and it would drive the Democrats nuts, since it threatens the main element of the current tax code... social engineering.