Reason Writers Around Town: Matt Welch in the New York Post on the VAT Trial Balloon
Writing in America's most lively newspaper, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch argues that a U.S. VAT would be the opposite of the fiscal responsibility in whose name it is being proposed. Excerpt:
With the stunning emergence of the consumption-based Value Added Tax (VAT) as a legitimate public policy option, the Obama administration has now all but made it official: There is no European economic idea too extreme for 21st century America. Even if the Europeans themselves are largely headed in the opposite direction. […]
What's worse for us is that we've pretty much given up trying to address the root problem, which is the decade long spending binge initiated by George W. Bush and then tripled down on by Barack Obama. The VAT isn't a way to streamline a complicated tax code; it's a new spigot to flood money into the pockets of teachers who can't be fired, and securities regulators who can't get enough porn.
