Joe Conason: 'No new taxes' for GOP--Except a National Sales Tax

[flpoljunkie]

"No new taxes" for GOP -- except a national sales tax
Republicans swear they won't raise taxes -- but Rand Paul and Paul Ryan want to tax everything you buy

BY JOE CONASON

Can you guess which tax is bad, bad, bad when suggested by Democrats but perfectly acceptable when proposed by Republicans? Listening to Rand Paul and Paul Ryan, among others, the answer is a national sales tax or value-added tax, known in Europe as a VAT. While Republicans argue ferociously to preserve the Bush tax cuts for America’s wealthiest families, the notion of a new federal tax on goods and services - which would disproportionately penalize working consumers -- is becoming fashionable among their party’s most prominent figures.

The Kentucky Republican Senate candidate made headlines yesterday when he proposed a national sales tax to replace the income tax, but Paul is scarcely alone in preferring a tax that falls most heavily on the middle class, workers and the poor. Rep. Ryan’s budget "roadmap," released earlier this year to much fanfare in the conservative and mainstream media, relies on an 8.5 percent "business consumption" tax -- yet another name for what Europeans call a VAT. From Arizona to Maine, Republican candidates seem increasingly eager to impose a national sales tax -- and although they usually say this new tax would “replace” the income tax and abolish the IRS, such fantasies aren't contemplated by Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee.

Regressive taxation is a perennial enthusiasm among conservatives. But whatever happened to "no new taxes" and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge popularized by Grover Norquist? Ryan and Paul are both among the signatories of the Norquist pledge, a document that forbids any “changes in tax deductions or credits that increase the tax burden on Americans,” as a national sales tax or VAT would inevitably do -- especially if it doesn’t replace income and wage taxes. Evidently the Wisconsin Republican believed he could get away with sneaking a VAT into his budget plan (which is one of several reasons that the Ryan roadmap would increase the tax burden on most American families while lavishing new tax breaks on the wealthiest few).

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/republican_party/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/10/13/salestax

[Kdillard]

1. Yep and people keep falling for the lie. I would love not to have taxes but.

I also love having roads, policemen, a fire department and other services. I seriously want to ask these people who believe that the GOP or anyone can even begin to tackle our budget or debt without raising taxes in some form if they still believe in the tooth fairy. People pushing that nonesense are liars and are not serious about taking care of business.

[mrcheerful]

2. That is why you can never get the Tea Bag republicons to say what government spending they

want to cut outside of the programs like welfare SS and other safety nets, but realty is they really don't want those programs to end for themselves they want to pick and choose who can use those programs. TBR's want it all for themselves, basically if they could stop brown people from getting something they will gladly cut their own throats. Notice also these are the same people who bitch loudest about pot holes in the streets they use yet they keep voting for people who refuse to answer the problem, taxes are not really a problem as long as they don't have to pay them. When they realize that the sales tax would cut into their pockets more then the income taxes they will be shouting not fair the loudest.

[KingFlorez]

3. That tax would be destructive

Each state already has it's sales tax, in California, we pay over 8%. Tacking this on, it would jump to nearly 20%.