Posted on 06/30/2009 6:09:03 PM PDT by Kaslin
Once again the American Left is beating the drum for a European-style Value Added Tax (VAT) to raise vast new sums for the federal government.
President Obama's budget proffers the VAT as one way to fund his health care initiative. And respected liberal policy gurus such as Len Berman of the Tax Policy Center are thumping the VAT as well.
A more sophisticated version of a national retail sales tax, a VAT is levied at each stage of production, yielding a series of tax assessments. Ultimately, consumers bear the cumulative costs.
Economically speaking, the VAT's lack of transparency is a bad thing. But for politicians seeking to raise revenues as discreetly as possible, opacity is a feature, not a bug.
In decades past, efforts to advance a VAT have gone nowhere. But political and economic circumstances have changed. Today, stopping the VAT may be an uphill fight.
President Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have developed a yin to Ronald Reagan's yang. Reagan, you'll recall, pioneered the "starve the beast" concept. Rather than cutting government spending directly, he reasoned, we could deprive government of revenues through tax relief and let deficit pressures constrain spending.
Obama and company have responded with a "glut the beast" strategy. The calculation seems to be that, if we ramp up spending to unprecedented heights, that unsustainable deficit pressure will force the nation to accept massive tax hikes. Their strategy may work better than Reagan's.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
VAT is an evil tax. It’s all about making people think they are only paying X in sales taxes when in fact they are paying X+Y+Z+...
VAT and Cap N Tax are beloved by liberals because the tax is collected by a third party rather than directly by govt.
The taxes will be hidden, and the liberals will blame the third parties for the added prices/costs.
VAT = VERY BAD IDEA!
The VAT is a much discussed VERY BAD IDEA, and IMHO will not benefit anyone except government.
It will be, if enacted, a poison pill for the US economy.
FairTax ping!
If it is a very bad idea that will benefit government and help destroy what economy we have left, then you can bet your last nickel (before the government takes it) that Obama and the Rats will be for it.
Who is going to have any money to buy anything?!!!
Thass right!
Government loves VAT — raises a hellofalot of money and allows more government control of businesses, e.g. requires more paperwork and increases audit opportunities for government, requiring more government employees.
Big win for government, big loss for taxpayers and less FReedom for all.
DITTO!
I cannot say it any better than you already have!
IRS says after VAT and Cap & Trade- “How much did you make last year?” ...”Send it in”.
Thanks, Bigun.
Hopefully, the sheeple will wake up in time and dispatch Obozo and his fellow LIberal/Socialist/Marxist clowns to the ash heap of history, where they truly belong.
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