National Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look; Rahm Emanuel's brother advises 10% VAT...

Washington Post ^ | 5/27/2009 | Lori Montgomery

[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."

[The Great RJ]

Add this VAT to the cap and trade “light switch tax”, the cost of compliance to the new EPA regulations on greenhouse gases and the soon to come double digit inflation and our economy might even make East Germany’s look good.

[dirtboy]

What makes you think that any future election will be even remotely fair?

Simple - the percentages by which the California initiatives were shot down. ACORN can only cheat so much.

[dalereed]

Vat destroyed Europe, i’m sure it can do the same here!

[pillut48]

Boy, am I glad that I’m in that 95% of all Americans that will not see my taxes raised ONE THIN DIME!!!! Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

How do ya like them apples, HolyO voters?! Sheesh. 2010 and 2012 can’t come soon enough for me to end this nightmare of a bizarro administration. HolyO is definitely putting Jimmah Carter to shame as Worst...President...Ever!!! Poor Jimmah, LOL! At least he’s got that meaningless Nobel Prize to cling to, LOL.

[TSgt]

Just last night I was talking to my neighbor and told him that today more Americans want a cold bowl of gruel handed to them by the government than to have to go out and cook a fat steak for themselves.

Go to your local Wal-Mart during the workday and you'll see what is wrong with America. Lazy, fat, uneducated, unemployed welfare types waddling around the aisles with their broods of undisciplined children while you and I work to pay for the cheap Chinese crap they put in their carts next to their Mountain Dew and hoard of free prescription drugs.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

I propose that the government take 25% of all awards given in trial attorney litigation cases. After all, the taxpayers pay for the infrastructure of the judicial system that allows lawsuits to be filed and tried. That way we all profit when some inane lawsuit goes forward. If the administration is going to push for socialized medicine, and own car companies, why not skim a little from the trial lawyers. It would only be ‘fair’.

[keepitreal]

I’m sure the welfare mom will get something akin to the “prebate” bandied about by the advocates of the fair tax. They will still not pay anything, demand more government services, and the middle class will struggle under a larger burden.

[pillut48]

You do realize you’ll be double taxed for all of those items? ;-)

[earlJam]

Currently, over 40 percent pay no income tax.

At least under the VAT, the poor would pay their fair share.

But like Milton Friedman said, the VAT is the easiest tax to raise and the one most abused by politicians.

[Boiling Pots]

How’s this different from the “fair tax?”

Any type of national sales tax without the repeal of the 22nd is lunacy.

[khnyny]

The Fair tax would not only eliminate the useless IRS, but it would target the underground economy that currently pays ZERO taxes.

As a matter of fact, people in Congress (and Rahm's brother, apparently) are cognizant of the fact that there is a growing underground economy where people don't pay income taxes.

[Little Ray]

The percentages by which the PRK initiatives were shot down just shows that the Californians don’t want to pay for their goodies - they still want them.

[pillut48]

You know what? When the lowest worker at McDonald’s on up to Bill Gates has to WRITE A CHECK TO THE GOVERNMENT on their paydays instead of getting a check to cash for the work they have done, THEY WILL NOTICE. ALL of America is starting to notice it, in their wallets and purses.

And even then there will be slack jawed, glazed eyes of people still worshipping HolyO, but the majority of them will start shaking off the hypnosis and start protesting right along with the rest of us who saw this coming several years ago!!!

[lakeman]

Sorry but you have it wrong. You see the gubermint will increase the welfare payments to offset the tax increase. Then we will be talking another type of tax to offset the shortfall.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is borne by the consumer. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything,"

If that happens, I wonder if the humanoids who voted for Obama will finally understand the gravity of their mistake.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Dear FRiends,

In light of what is transpiring in our nation’s capitol, more than ever, we need to ensure that places like Free Republic and other like-minded places continue to speak the plain truth. Newspapers are dying and the current administration will either bail them out or allow them to fail. If they are bailed out, they will be even more beholding to the coming socialist agenda. If they are allowed to fail, the powers that be will force the remaining electronic media to fill the void. Local coverage only. No national syndicated news/talk. The “Fairness Doctrine”, like it or not.

After that, the internet. Free Republic. And others.

We need to get this FReepathon over and right now. We need to show that we are serious and will continue forward and thrive, not just survive.

If you can spare a couple of bucks, that would be great...If not, God bless you and please stop by the FReepathon thread and give it a bump.

We’re all in this together.

[pillut48]

Can you imagine someone who works at McDonald’s getting their paycheck on Friday, expecting $300 and only getting $150???

Holy cow, just wait for the riots in the streets and the shouts for impeachment of HolyO and his cronies and their despotism!! LOL!!!

Of course, we can also do a neener neener and tell them, “Hey! At least you have NATIONAL HEALTH CARE!!” Bwahahaha!
“But we wanted everything for FREE!! Obama promised we wouldn’t pay any higher taxes!”

Snort.

This MIGHT be a good thing after all, especially if it wakes up more people to the destructiveness of Obama’s administration and taxtaxtax and spendspendspend policies!!

[SumProVita]

Barter system anyone???

[EternalVigilance]

The VAT is one of the few taxes that would be even more insidious than than the current withheld income tax.

The VAT is a hidden tax, levied at every level of production.

Hidden taxes are the devil’s playground.

But, everyone here should understand that a VAT is not a National Retail Sales Tax like the FairTax. Retail sales taxes are the most visible taxes of all.

The Washington Post, unsurprisingly, is deceiving people.

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.

THEY THINK WE ARE SUCH IDIOTS!!!!

Will they never understand that we want less spending not more taxes?

Cut the budget, cut the number of federal employees, cut give-away and entitlement programs. DON'T create new programs (bureaucracies) that require hundreds of billions of additional dollars ad infinitum - national health care, cap and trade, auto bailouts (UAW rescue plan).

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEBT!