Obama Preps VAT

Strangely enough, I consider this to be excellent macro economic news.  I am not too exercised about the revenue potential as that it will level the import export playing field for the USA and the rest of the world who all use VAT systems.

So I am not going to oppose it when it is exactly the first thing that I would have done a year ago.  Our trading partners have gamed the VAT system to their interests for half a century.  This ends it.

The best system would be a ten percent or something close that is split between state and federal.  That way the state has revenue and can take on many programs now been handled at federal level.

However, it will not start up been right and will take a generation to get sort of right as will health care.

I have posted here on the topic of VAT and the present dispensation is the worst possible deal for the USA.  The bad news is that it will not be popular and is likely to be a disaster for Obama.  In the event it cannot be launched until after November.

We had this drill in Canada about twenty years ago and it proved to be one of the wisest things ever done.  That was seen by few at the time.  You will find that any numbers of hidden taxes are getting money while actually damaging competition.  VAT ends all that.

Obama Calculates VAT Tax

Monday, 19 Apr 2010 07:56 AM

By: Grover Norquist

http://newsmax.com/GroverNorquist/barack-obama-vat-value/2010/04/19/id/356102

President Barack Obama’s economic team is already calculating government revenues from a possible value added tax (VAT), according toThe New York Times on April 18.

Article excerpt:

But since any Social Security plan would probably preserve benefits for those nearing retirement, it would not help the administration achieve its goal of reducing the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, from 10 percent, within a decade.

One way to reach that 3 percent goal, by the calculations of Mr. Obama’s economic team: a 5 percent value-added tax, which would generate enough revenue to simultaneously permit the reduction in corporate tax rates Republicans favor.

The reported VAT calculations may explain President Obama’s recent attempts to alter the terms of his central campaign promise — a promise that no family making less than $250,000 per year would see “any form of tax increase.”

Twice in the past 10 days, Obama has claimed his pledge applied only to income taxes. In his April 10 Weekly Radio Address, Obama said: “And one thing we have not done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000. That’s another promise we’ve kept.”

In a speech on the evening of April 15, Obama repeated the truncated promise: “And one thing we haven’t done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year — another promise that we kept.”

In the interest of transparency, Americans for Tax Reform respectfully asks President Obama to immediately release the reported VAT calculations or deny such calculations exist.

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