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“There can be no national sales tax without a constitutional amendment.”

Really? What prohibits it? How is a sales tax all that different from an excise tax?

wiki sez:
"For purposes of the U.S. Constitution, an excise tax can be defined as any indirect tax, or event tax.
An excise means any tax other than:
(1) a property tax or Ad-valorem tax by reason of its ownership;
(2) a tax per head tax or capitation tax by being present (very rare in the U.S.);
(3) an income tax paid directly to the government on income;
or a (4) sales tax which is paid on all sales except specifically exempted items.

An excise is imposed on listed specific taxable events or products and are usually not collected or paid directly by the consumer (a direct tax).

Excise taxes are collected by the producer or retailer and paid by them to the Internal Revenue Service, state or local tax agency.

Of course the consumer ultimately pays the excise tax which is added to the price of the product when it is sold. Often sales taxes are collected as a percentage of the cost of the product including any excise tax (a tax on a tax)."

The Constitution prohibits direct taxation,
the 16th amendment allows for direct taxation on income.

U.S. Constitution-Article 1-Section 9-Paragraph 4:
“No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”

In order to be able to tax income, the 16th amendment was passed:
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”