Now that the Debt is 14 Trillion should we have a VAT Tax for 2years

[Parche]

or longer to get the national debt down??

:shrug:

[Ozymanithrax]

1. With the economy still struggling...No!

Let the deficit rise until consumer passion reignites in an orgy of buy, buy, buy.

But that happens only have jobs, jobs, jobs reaches an orgasmic peak.

[Parche]

4. I say

we have it on luxury items ,SUV's etc.......

not on food, clothing, or middle class items

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/7/7b/20091104130047!United.b777-200.n772ua.arp.jpg

[Statistical]

7. Then you merely make a whole new area for people to lobby.

Classify an escalade as a "work truck" not a "luxury truck" and it avoids the VAT.

1) No raising taxes especially not on consumption in a recession
2) If you need revenue raise income taxes.
3) Even if you did have a VAT the only advantage of VAT is simplicity. Start making backets, and exemptions, and offsets you might as well scrap it and just modify income taxes.

[Parche]

8. no exemptions

period.....

[Statistical]

9. You just named exceptions. Read two posts up.

"I say we have it on luxury items ,SUV's etc....... not on food, clothing, or middle class items"

[Parche]

15. those arn't exemptions

those are what the vat tax would be on, no exemptions on those items

[Statistical]

17. Which are exemptions.

Some items are exempt.

Thus creating a HUGELY profitable industry lobbying Congress to get your item exempt.

No thanks. What does a 2% VAT accomplish that a 2% progressive increase in income tax doesn't? Other than further shift burden of govt onto the poor and create a massive multi-billion opportunity for lobbyists?

[Ozymanithrax]

21. Value Added Tax...Let me see.

We add value to wheat, milk, yeast, salt, oil, and eggs to make bread. You want to set a VAT tax on items that only the affluent and above (+ corporations buy). But corporations can buy wherever they get the best deal. They just buy a jet in a country where there is no VAT. Or they lease from foreign companies that don't pay a VAT.

A VAT is not the answer, sadly. We need a better economy. The time to tax people comes once sustained growth has been achieved.

[Hawkowl]

2. Goddamn it!!!

NO! What the bloody fuck? Obama just gives away the store to the richest bastards who fucked the economy, and now you want to stick it to the everyday consumers so we can continue to fund their tax breaks and two brutal wars of occupation?

You want to lower the debt? Put tax rates back to Nixon's levels. End the wars. Cut "defense" spending by 60%. Institute tariffs on unfair trading partners like China.

Stick the VAT tax up somebody's ass.

[immoderate]

14. YES! We don't need more tax on the poor!

We need to break up the hoards of wealth, not promote them.

--imm

[Hannah Bell]

24. +100.

[Skink]

3. We do have the wars to think about.

:thumbsup:

[JVS]

5. No. We're not getting any better treatment from the government, why should we pay more?

[Statistical]

6. No. Not in a recession. Also no regressive taxes.

Need $x more in revenue increase income taxes progressively.

[Chan790]

10. Only if...

every person who loses their job in the impending depression as a result of that VAT can punch Paul Ryan in the face repeatedly on national television while someone reads aloud from The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money by John Maynard Keynes in the voice-over.

[MannyGoldstein]

11. We should return taxes to Eisenhower levels

Triple the tax on the wealthiest Americans, half the tax on the middle class. And everyone did fine.

[msongs]

12. just cut the military industrial welfare budget by say 50% nt

[RickFromMN]

13. I'd like to know the advantages of a VAT tax before wanting one.

I don't think liberals like a VAT tax because I think it is a regressive tax.

I don't think conservatives like a VAT tax because it doesn't replace the income tax,
but instead increases the money available for government to spend, and thus allows the growth of government.

[Mark Maker]

16. Nothing is more permanent than a temporary tax.

I'm trying to remember one.

[MilesColtrane]

18. When the economy improves increased tax revenue is going to bring that figure down.

Needs to be helped along by ending the wars and slashing military spending though.

[Motown_Johnny]

19. How about ending all corporate subsidies for 2 years instead?

[Rage for Order]

20. No. Once instituted, a VAT would never go away

It's a rare day when the government repeals a tax it has previously levied. It took over 100 years to repeal the telecommunications tax that was levied in 1898 as a "temporary tax" to pay for the Spanish American War. I guess that means it was technically a temporary tax, but 108 years is permanent by life expectancy standards.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2006-05-25-phone-tax_x.htm

[applegrove]

22. That is how Canada has done it and paid for health care over the last decade

and a half.

[Hannah Bell]

23. no. not if the rich & corporations are getting off. once a vat is in, it will not be just for

2 years.

the ptb want a vat to further reduce taxes on wealth.

[Gothmog]

25. Regressive taxation is a bad idea

The VAT is a very regressive tax and is a bad idea.

[lumberjack_jeff]

26. No, no, no.

Period.

VAT/Sales Tax/Flat tax are the stupidest goddamn ideas ever.