If single payer is off the table, then the VAT should be off the table, too.

[girl gone mad]

There is no way I will support a national sales tax designed to enable health care "reform" which amounts to nothing more than a massive giveaway to the insurance industry. End the wars, put single payer back on the table and then maybe we can talk about VAT.

Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602909_pf.html">The Washington Post
Levy Viewed as Way to Reduce Deficits, Fund Health Reform

With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.

Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.

At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, 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 borne by the consumer. 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 VAT advocates say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American -- a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.

[DesertFlower]

1. IMO without single payer,

there is no health care reform.

[Vincardog]

2. Bingo without single payer, there is no health care reform.