The Final Straw

The Final Straw – The National Sales Tax.

The NEW National Sales Tax, on TOP of your current tax burden.

“Of course you know, dis means War.”
-Bugs Bunny

Spending unchecked, deficits soaring, a trillion dollar undefined health care plan, escalating wars in Afghanistan with the very good possibility of expanded Pakistani, Iranian and North Korean theaters, and –most importantly – the real chance that America’s A+++ credit rating is about to get reeled in - President Obama and his cronies need some cash. Thanks to Rahm Emanuel’s brother, there’s a fresh look at a money-taking idea long considered too politically taboo: the national sales tax.

I remember the VAT – the Value Added Tax in the UK. Not a lot of fun. I think it was 15% when I last visited there. But on the bright side, I could actually add up the total of my grocery cart and be spot on.

The idea of a VAT Tax hasn’t been seriously considered in the United States. It was only a bad joke in polite society. But now the drum beat of a few elites are saying that few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity. You know, without cutting spending or some such nonsense.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner was begged by a bunch of tax ‘experts’ to consider the VAT. Suddenly, a flurry the subject is attracting interest in Congress. Last month, once spending got so nuts by Obama, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.

"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."

A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is paid for by the consumer. It would be on everything. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But folks who dig the VAT say the negatives are off set with “free” health care for everyone – a carrot on a stick for low-income families… who keep voting for these idiots.

"You could pay for it regressively and have people at the bottom come out better off -- maybe. Or you could pay for it progressively and they'd come out a lot better off," said Bob McIntyre, director of the nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice, which has a health financing plan that targets corporations and the rich. Citizens for Tax Justice? What, did you just come up with that in your garage one day, Bob? How about Citizens for Tax Accountability? I’d join that made-up group.

The White House said VAT is "unlikely to be in the mix" as a means to pay for health-care reform. "While we do not want to rule any credible idea in or out as we discuss the way forward with Congress, the VAT tax, in particular, is popular with academics but highly controversial with policymakers." Well, that was true of the flat-tax idea too, but because that might be, oh, FAIR, it's off the table.

A prominent VAT advocate was hired to advise the White House on health care: Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and author of the 2008 book "Health Care, Guaranteed." Hmmm? Nepotism in government hiring? No! I don't believe it.

I have an idea. Let’s stop spending. Can we try that? How about we DON’T expand the size of the government and conduct three wars at the same time? How about that? I don’t know because it hasn’t been tried.

Welcome to Chicago, America. You asked for Change. That's all we're going to have left... Some change, and waiting in line with a bunch of coughing people at the National Health Clinic.

Perhaps we need to collectively ask if DMV-styled health care is worth it. Perhaps we need to really examine what we really need and what we want from our government. Federal and local. Many would say that it’s already big enough, we don’t need it to get any bigger. We don’t have any accountability of what they’re doing with our money now – and you need more of it? Time to show your math, Congress. Show us where the money that you already have is going. We know that it's going to your cousins and your cronies, but we want an audit.

And remember the VAT - would be ON TOP of all your state, city, and county taxes - plus, one would assume with sin items, like soda pop, cigarettes, and gasoline - it would be tax on top of those already high taxes. Oh yeah!

Do you wonder why there’s an ammunition shortage, but not a shortage of disaster prep gear?

It’s time for America to stand up and say,
“Read OUR lips. NO NEW TAXES.”