The new bipartisan federal debt commission is set to report on how the US should cut its deficit December 1, as Congress recesses without a budget for the fifth time in seven years after enacting massive deficit spending, and the Bush tax cuts are now subject to horse trading in a lame duck session.
That means the federal debt commission’s findings could reshape government tax and spending policy in a dramatic fashion.
And some fear they smell a VAT, akin to a new national sales tax.
But a value-added tax is not tax reform, as it would most likely not replace, but get layered on top of, the US’s tangled barbed wire of a tax system.
A VAT is a symptom, not a cure, for fiscal incontinence.
Often installed with great fanfare as being debt busters in Europe, a VAT didn’t cure Europe’s debt problems—spending and debt only continued to grow under VATs there.
And so did Europe’s VATs, which started at 5% in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, and now average 18%. (more)
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