[Albion Wilde]

...you haven't lived in a county with a VAT. We won't have Amero-style tax fraud any more. We will have Euro-fraud along with a Euro-bureaucracy that will look like some behemoth monster of the IRS and the European parliatment to collect it, and enforce it.

You step out of a ristorante in Italy and a tax guy might be lurking just outside the door to check your receipt -- it's almost Biblical. Or like the door "greeters" at Walmart who ask to see your receipt to check if you have stolen anything in the cart. Only it would be every store, everywhere, subject to receipt checking. It would require an army of government bouncers and you'd hardly be able to get through your errands in a day.

[AndyJackson]

You are a poor 80 year old widow living on some $897 a month social security. She doesn't pay tax on that. But now Cruz comes along and says I also won't charge income tax. I will charge a VAT. She is now 20% worse off than she was.

Who does Cruz's 10% Tax plus a VAT help - well most of us will actually pay more tax. It helps the super-wealthy. Of course. They are Ted's paymaster.