I did look. Thanks, it is an interesting concept. I like the simplicity of the APT tax and the elimination of the income and other taxes. However, the simplicity and low rate is also the problem. If 0.35% is revenue neutral, then 0.45% may pay for more government programs, and 0.55% would pay for even more pet political projects, etc. The transaction tax isn't clearly visible and is paid along the chain of transactions. Sounds like the VAT. I prefer a national sales tax along the line of the FairTax precisely because it is so high (upwards of 30%) to be revenue neutral and so clearly visible as a separate line on the sales receipt stating "Federal Sales Tax."
Ultimately, the issue really isn't taxing it is spending. Taxes are the symptom and run away spending is the illness. The smaller the percentage and less visible, the easier it is to raise and feed more spending. On that count, I would oppose the APT. Make taxes as clearly visible as possible and paid by the every consumer. When the true cost of the beast is visible to all is when you will get agreement to reduce spending.
A version of this was described about 30 years ago in a Science Fiction short story (I think it was Analog). It was called the FIST (floating instantaneous Sales Tax). Everyone used a computer for their transactions, and the sales tax was applied to each transaction. (Instantaneous)
When Congress passed a spending bill, the sales tax rate would be adjusted (hence, floating).
Now for the good part. Every one of these computers has a red button to register dissatisfaction if the FIST went up.
a) if a majority if the voters in a congressional district punched the red button within any 24 hour period, a small explosive charge that had been inserted into the back of the congresscritter’s head would explode.
b) if a majority of the voters in a State ...
c) if a majority of the voters in the country ...
If we are going to do the APT, we should do the FIST.
I don't understand the argument, that this is a hidden tax.
And yes politicians can raise our taxes, there is no defense against that. Does not matter what tax system we have they can still raise the rates.
The economy would boom under APT, and yes the government would have more income (Trouble). And yes lawmakers could mess with the rates. We cannot change behavior of our system of government. We can change to less intrusive way of collecting revenue. And become close to a almost tax free economy.
I think it would work better than what we have now. The taxes we have now just kill our economy.