Get off your couches...Empty your piggy banks...Get to D.C.
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Posted on 05/27/2009 5:38:44 AM PDT by GreaterSwiss
With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.
At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.
"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, ‘Make us your slaves, but feed us.’” (Dosteovsky’s Grand Inquisitor.)
They understand it, and well and smartly work around it.
If a little fair tax is good, more is better. I say 20% fair tax isn’t fair. 65% fair tax is fair.
/dem think off.
“this proposal (at least as quoted by Emmanuel in the article) would NOT eliminate the income tax.”
Right. Emanuel wants a VAT dedicated exclusively to health care: it’s not designed to replace anything. It’s designed to accomodate a massive expansion of the welfare state using a financing mechanism that will be less visible than the payroll tax. A VAT as replacement for income/payroll taxes has much to recommend it. A dedicated VAT to finance health care would be a singularly bad idea (since we would have foregone the opportunity to reform our current tax code and insulated health care from competing against government expenditures for defense, criminal justice, education etc.).
Therefore, I hope Obama pursues this, as I think it will greatly amplify opposition to his health plan.
The tax payers will pay for their increases, like we do everything else.
There are grasshoppers and there are ants. The grasshoppers want to feed.
All this is about money and control. We can live without their money, but they can't live without ours. Learn to live on less. Make yolk with those of a like mind and work together. Let the democrat base fend for themselves.
“Rahm Emanuel’s Brother Advises 10% VAT”
Isn’t it wonderful to be governed by brilliant,
all-knowing, intellectual, really smart, wise-a&&es er, wise men outside of the government?
IMHO
Most of them are touted as "net" taxes; purchases by a business can (and usually do) generate a credit against VAT to be paid --- but all of this has to be documented for every eligible purchase.
My own belief is that the nightmare of paperwork for a typical small U.S. business to comply with both our income tax and a proposed VAT would be overwhelming.
The shooting part. At least not yet.
Check out what happened in Canada after the GST or “Goods and Services Tax” was implemented in 1991. Immediately after it was imposed, the sales tax in Ontario, the largest province, was increased from 7% (Provincial Sales Tax) to 15% (7% + 8% GST) which meant that every purchase all of a sudden became subject to a higher tax rate and many purchases became more expensive because items previously exempt from taxes became taxable including groceries, and services such as plumbing or landscaping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goods_and_Services_Tax_%28Canada%29
The GST is the same as the VAT in Europe. It was and remains very unpopular in Canada and led to overall inflation by an amount greater than the tax because many items became taxable multiple times in the delivery of the product to the customer, although federal statistics tried to exclude the affect of the tax. The party that imposed it (Progressive Conservatives under PM Brian Mulroney) was virtually wiped out in the next federal election in 1993, largely because it was so unpopular.
Any form of VAT on a national basis will simply be a means to increase taxes and control more of our income or ability to earn. Stop it now before it becomes law.
The Republicans are no different from the democrats. They work together as a team - good cop, bad cop. Either way, Americans lose. The slaves will just have to learn to make their bricks without straw. The democrat base wants to feed.
Sorry, we'll probably be dead by the time those entities arrive.
Not to worry, though.
The zerO's, redistributionists, social engineers etc are guaranteeing their *birth* & subsequent arrival as we write. It'll just be some years in the making.
Those today who're currently 45-50 & over, while getting their share of suffering will likely miss the real fireworks.
Excerpt:
With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.
At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.
"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table..." *snip*
Read more at the Washington Compost: Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look
I honestly believe this country has no idea what’s coming our way..
The thought of a cut in spending never occurs to profesional politicians. Time for term limits.
If you really want a tax revolution, then all you need to is make withholding of income taxes illegal and make it so that everyone has to send in their taxes every quarter.
I fear any sort of VAT would be hidden from the citizen and blamed on businesses.
Add in the Cap and trade taxes and oh boy, is the economy ever going to soar! Right? Right?
Oh dear. A 10 percent VAT? I suppose that’s just to start, and it’s on top of state sales taxes. And I see that the Democrats want to increase the income tax too. I suppose that will be on top of letting the Bush tax cuts expire. And then there will be Social Security and Medicare tax increases.
At the rate things are going, moving to Alberta in Canada (or even British Columbia) is looking like a wonderful option.
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Yep. Scary, isn't it? :-(
Forgot to add:
This is like a parent telling their child to quit crying, before they really give them something to cry about!
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