Isn’t a carbon tax a VAT?
Canada has its version of it - the federal GST = Goods and Services Tax that is harmonized with provincial sales taxes.
It's also worth noting that the VAT is only really an effective revenue source in a modern economy where people enjoy a high standard of living. In other words, it only works when most people buy things rather than producing or growing things themselves. That's why it is imposed in places like Europe and modern Asian nations, but is probably unheard of in places like Africa and Third World countries in Asia. The VAT is a pointless tax in an agrarian society where people don't buy very much.
Regardless of any kind of tax, the Supremes have clarified that Congress is prohibited from appropriating revenue in the name of state power issues, esentially any issue that Congress cannot justify under its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
I’m absolutely against any VAT. I would be for abolishing the Income Tax - ie, ridding ourselves to the Constitutional Amendment, and replacing it with a Constitutional Amendment which limits government spending, and designating the States to collect Federal revenue through a Sales Tax.
A Sales Tax is much different, and significantly better, than VAT.
Should be called the Taxes-Added Tax. If anyone thinks an existing tax will go away with the introduction of a new tax, hasn’t paid attention to the history of... well, everything.
I hate to be the one to tell you this but that train has left the station. It's going down and as soon as you get over your normalcy bias and accept that fact, the better prepared for it you will be. The only question that remains to be answered is whether Janet Yellen or John Roberts pulls the switch. I now look upon the US Government in much the same manner that Czechoslovakia must have viewed Germany in 1938.
You don’t need a case against it, because there is no case for it.
Before the 16th amendment, America had the most just taxation system in the world. The apportionment clause in the Constitution was to stop factions from ganging up on the more productive states and looting them. It was one of the many jewels in our Constitution. People voted for the 16th amendment because of the whining over the Fuller court overturning the 1894 income tax in the magnificent Pollack vs Farmers Loan and Trust Supreme Court case.
Unfortunately I have to support adding a VAT simply because this country will COLLAPSE without it. We, the public in general, demand that Congress spend a Trillion or so dollars it doesn’t collect every year - so we might as well find a way to pay for some of that, because this country will not be a pretty place for my children otherwise.
Of course the other option is to cut spending...but that never seems to get anywhere - if it did, then yes, I would be against a VAT, as I really don’t like it at all.