Well you should be. The Value-Added-Tax seems to be on many people's minds these days. For instance, John Podesta, the co-chairman of his transition team, and Nancy Pelosi, of course, think it's a great idea. And it's not as if these guys want to replace the income tax with a VAT, they want to adopt a European-style VAT that's added on top of the income tax.
Here is Podesta making his pitch:
"There’s going to have to be revenue in this budget,” said Podesta, Clinton’s former chief of staff and co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s transition team, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing today.
A so-called consumption tax would “create a balance” with European and Japanese economies and “could potentially have a substantial effect on competitiveness,” said Podesta. Value- added taxes in Europe and Japan encourage savings by taxing consumption.
Hmm? Increasing taxes would make us more competitive. He lost me.
Dan Mitchell has a new video to tell us why it's such a bad idea.
