Another Advocate for a VAT

Nationally syndicated columnist Froma Harrop has penned a recent article championing her very own "Five Commandments of Tax Reform".

In general, the article makes the familiar arguments in favor of steeply higher levels of tax. In particular, the author's view on the desirability of a national VAT are worth pointing out.

"The middle class shall pay something: You can understand why Democrats would limit new tax increases to upper-income folk, who enjoyed enormous tax cuts during the George W. Bush era. A correction was in order.

But eventually everyone must pitch in. Politicians can't go on telling the middle class that it can enjoy new entitlements, and keep the ones it has, without paying more taxes.

The difficulty of getting this message across makes the VAT (value-added tax) a righteous idea. A kind of national sales tax, the VAT is considered regressive because the poor also pay it. But the social programs these taxes fund are progressive."

Ms. Harrop vastly overestimates the public's willingness to pay a VAT in order to continue to be "lavished" with the benefits of various government programs and entitlements.

Most Americans were and are opposed to the government's recent efforts to muscle in on health care. So they hardly would agree to a massive tax increase in order to pay for it.

Although the adoption of a VAT might be the current holy grail for central planners and their champions in the mainstream media, there is no support for the VAT from the people who would actually be footing the bill.