[John Valentine]

Cruz is NOT proposing a VAT tax. That is an outright lie.

[kiryandil]

Ted Cruz's and Rand Paul's Strange Embrace of the VAT
National Review, November, 2015
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426469/ted-cruz-rand-paul-vat

Apparently, National Review thinks it's a VAT. They had another article on the same thing a few days later.

Apparently, "economists" are calling the Cruz flat business tax [16%?] a "VAT".

It kind of makes sense, because businesses don't pay taxes - their customers pay the tax.