Wait a minute.
I thought Cruz spoke of his 16% retail sales tax, which eliminates all the other taxes...and is NOT a VAT.
That's not a "flat tax".
Cruz may be referring to the Linder Fair Tax. I read the 65 pages of the proposal more than ten years ago. It called for a 23% sales tax on all new products, presumably including big ticket items like cars and houses. It also called for a guaranteed monthly “prebate” equal to the amount of taxes someone on a poverty income would have to pay for basic necessities of living. Apparently there would be no tax on used houses, cars, clothing, furniture, etc. This would appeal to those who favor conservation of resources and recycling. On the other hand I did not see anything about sending money out of the country without paying taxes. This smacks of the “offshoring” that some at FR have pointed out is sending our jobs out of the country. In addition there would be no limitation on the money that the super rich could take out of the country without ever contributing to this tax. Some countries have limits or taxes on the money you can take out of country.