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 ...
I’m actually hoping for it. It will likely take a giant misstep to snap some Americans out of their Obamamania. They think this guy hung the moon.
Raise a $150/week grocery bill by 15% and you will wake a few people up. They’ll start to wonder where that $ is going.
Sadly, that’s what it takes sometimes to get people to start paying attention...when it finally affects them personally. Too bad for the rest of us who were privy to it all along.
New rule. No one who gets a salary from any level of government - federal, state, local - is eligable to vote. Except the military, and cops - The folks directly involved in public safety. All others are nothing but bureaucrat pigs suckling at the public tit.
This idea leaves out the most essential part of the Fair Tax, repeal of the 16th amendmentRepeal of the 16th is not part of the Fairtax.
The FairTax is an exellent solution = the end of federal income taxes and the IRS.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2256608/posts
www.fairtax.org
It should be clear, the income tax on the rich will be in addition to the VAT, not in lieu.........
even IF they did that they would be back the next year for taxing the rich for their programs.
“It should be clear, the income tax on the rich will be in addition to the VAT, not in lieu.........”
Don’t kid yourself. The VAT will be in addition to our current income tax for all taxpayers.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced here in Jan, '91.
It wasn't pretty.
All those poor Albertans, not paying any sales tax at all until the introduction of the GST. ;)
Here in Ontario, we were already paying 8% Provincial sales tax on many items. The GST added another 7%.
For every dollar we spent, we needed the extra 15% to complete the transaction.
The Conservative Gov. has reduced the GST to 5%, as they promised. Still, why should any of us pay even 13% on everything we buy, to the government?
Sorry, I'm ranting tonight.
The only province I would give serious thought to moving to is Alberta. The five percent GST isn’t as much of a shock to me, since Virginia’s general sales tax is five percent. And, supposedly the income tax there and CPP taxes are lower than their U.S. equivalents. Plus, I have tons of family living there already.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I love Virginia, as I’ve grown up here. But Northern Virginia is full of illegals, federal employees, and leftists now, and the cost of living has gone sky high. Households here in the $50K-$100K range are too “rich” to receive government benefits but too poor to compete with the federals for housing...and it’s even worse for those lawfully resident households who have to buy health insurance on the open market because their employer doesn’t offer it. [Illegals just go to the ERs and then don’t pay.]
Gerald Celente...for those who might care to read or listen.
He’s also doing radio a lot, which you can find on YouTube.
In part, he is saying that the Mother of All Bubbles will be the bursting of the Bailout bubble, at which point, there will be the very rich, the tradesmen and the serfs. Period.
Celente, Schiff and Denninger are not ‘the happy people,’ as the guy at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii would say.
Off shore protections:
http://www.offshore-protection.com/panama-charitable-foundation.html
I am also looking for links to offshore trusts, which the wealthy use in this country to avoid taxation on their wealth.
They know this is coming, and that's why there is all this talk of a VAT. Tax evasion in places like Italy is rampant. Their government couldn't function without a VAT. It's much easier for the tax-eating class to terrorize a relatively few merchants than it is to put the genie back in the bottle when everyone starts fiddling their income taxes.
This foul regime is a plague on the land..
Amen, amen, amen. We could live very nicely with one-tenth the number of useless government slugs and leeches we now have.
I could solve this problem before lunchtime if I were Emperor. I'd have a War Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, State Department, and Interior Department, all of whom would have to make do on a fifth of their original budgets.
Every single employee in every other department would be either fired outright with an affordable lump sum in lieu of benefits, or would be transferred to an appropriate position in one of the five surviving departments if their job were deemed important enough. (Air traffic controllers, border patrol, and food inspectors are the only ones I can think of offhand.)
OMG
Haven’t they seen what high taxes are doing to California? or are they so Egocentric that they don’t care, it won’t hurt me.
Notice how nobody has EVER suggested a tax on wealth (annual net worth), only income.
The wealthy RATS that come up with these tax schemes make sure they don't have to pay. But the poor slob trying to work and make himself comfortable if not wealthy is screwed.
And the mid to high income RAT voters are too stupid to ever figure it out.
It the spending....stupid.
Yeah... and rich I ain’t but I’m kinda like the Jew that another Jew ask... “How are you?” The answer was... “I’m comfortable.” But VAT tax?? Fine... IF there is NO income tax. Otherwise... I, for one (and my clan... never said this before... are the hell outta here. And... frankly, I could give a tinker’s damn where.
When we get to the point that the Ruskies are commenting how quick we’re sliding toward old Carl Marx.
Screw’em and feed them fishheads and spam. Look... it’s either get the hell out or the only other alternative no one will even speak of.
MY COUNTY HAS COME TO THIS??? THE PLACE OUR CLAN CAME TO IN 1610 AND HAVE DEFENDED HER EVERY TIME A DUST UP THAT’S EVER COME DOWN THE PIKE.
SIMPLY TOO MAY FOLKS SUCKING A SUGAR TIT. SHORT AND SWEET... PUN INTENDED.
HAVE A GREAT NIGHT... I GOTTA GO AND DO SOME DEEP BREATHING EXERCISES.
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