Absolutely. And in addition, if we did away with an income tax in favor of a consumption tax, then our exporters, already benefiting from the exchange rate, have the cost of every product and service reduced by the amount of the tax they've been paying. This means jobs, jobs, jobs, not to mention the lessening of the power of "favors through tax policy" now poisoning the investment landscape.
Our economy would truly become turbo-charged.
No one hates the present tax code more than me, but this is meaningless sophistry. Consumption and production are flip sides of the same coin. Production we view as morally good, but consumption is morally bad, yet without one there will be none of the other. Shifting the tax from an income tax to a sales tax (consumption tax) to a VAT on exports will do nothing to change the total price of goods offered on foreign markets, since the total price will be set by international market factors and the variable costs - US wages and profits and total taxes collected can only be derivative thereof.
Conspiracy theories now jumble around in my head about how the weaker dollar will increase exports and ease protectionist gabbing just before the 2008 republican primaries.
OOOOOH HOW CONVENIENT!