Agreed—It’s late...I should have spelled that out...
Yes, seems the idea of a VAT tax rears its ugly head every five or ten years...As you say it is not transparent and adds a lot of cost to the end product.
I don’t live in Europe—don’t want European tax system...
I just found the whole issue troubling. Trump has said he won’t mess with people receiving SS (I don’t ...yet). However, the fact that some are considering a VAT to replace funding is really bad idea IMHO.
The liberal congress under Obama pushed for a VAT during his first 2 years in office. Nancy Pelosi was a great proponent of the VAT as was Schumer