Bruce Bartlett in his November 13th Forbes post thinks so basically because the gaping budgetary holes and debt peaks will be impassable without one. He admits that with a VAT we will be on Friedrich Hayek’s comfortable Road to Serfdom. And he suggests that once on that road we like the Europeans will be hard pressed to turn off.
It is hard to fault his argument. Our problems–to a large extent caused and certainly exacerbated by the Obama agenda–are so large that they cannot be overcome under our traditional structure. Obama and his clueless Democratic minions Reid and Pelosi believe that money grows on trees and that China and our trading partners will keep buying our increasingly worthless paper even while we continue to wage a trade war with them.
Could significant enough cuts be made in our budget? Undoubtedly, the could; very few things are beyond the realm of possibility. Will significant enough cuts ever be made? Undoubtedly, they never will be made, as this is one of the few things that is definitely beyond the realm of possibility.
The sad truth is that while a VAT could help, it will assuredly also hurt. Like bailouts it would be a cure which also causes the disease. Giving the politicians a new source of funds will only hasten our path on that Road to Serfdom. I don’t know about you, but my money is on a VAT as Obama hastens our Europeanization.
Tom Motherway