V.A.T.

Have you heard the new word? The word is VAT. I thought a vat was a pot that you cooked your goose in. Well as it turns out that is exactly what it is. VAT is the recently floated idea "Value Added Tax". This trial balloon has been offered by Paul Volker, former head of the Federal Reserve. The best definition is that it is a tax on every product from its origin to the consumer. From the cotton picker to the finished shirt every step of the way is taxed. It has been reported that a lowly VAT of only ten per cent would generate revenues of one trillion dollars per year. That, ladies and gentlemen, has the entire wild eyed spending Congress salivating. I am sure they see this as a never ending stream of money to continue to grow the government and fund all their hair brained liberal ideas. This tax would not appear on your receipt when you make a purchase. It would be built in. How convenient. How convenient that the Congress could just spend away and when they cap out that stream, they just raise the rate of the tax to increase the revenue. It is estimated that each percentage point represents one million dollars. This, they proffer, is the way it is done in Europe. Look at how successful it has been for them. What? Are they crazy? European socialism, and that is what this is, is a dismal failure, tired and exhausted. Is that what you want for us?

If a value added tax were offered instead of income tax, sales tax, property tax, and all the other various gouges we must submit to, I would certainly consider it. I would favor a national sales tax whereby everybody pays equally when they buy anything. From the illegal alien to the billionaire to the factory worker to the criminal who is pushing drugs. I would favor these taxes if they were instead of the current tax burden we face. I, however, would not favor ANY such tax if it were in addition to the taxes we now must submit to.

But Ron, we are out of money. We are running up huge deficits. Our revenue is down to such a degree that we just cannot continue to fund our programs. Really? Is that the case? Here's a novel idea. Stop spending money we don't have. This moronic Congress just approved a new spending program that will cost an estimated ten trillion dollars over the next ten years and that is ten trillion dollars that we just don't have. These trillions are dollars our children and grandchildren will have to pay. And, guess what? There is still no end to the spending this Administration and Congress have in mind. I wonder if anyone in this government has ever had to balance a check book. I wonder if any one of them has ever had to meet a payroll.

Being a serious student of current affairs I realize we have a problem. We cannot solve it by continually throwing money at it, especially money that we don't even have. The time has come and gone that we must take a different approach. Stop spending our future generations' wealth. Stop trying to destroy this country in order to replace it with a failed European socialist experiment. I hope it is not too late.

In my seventy years on this earth I have never seen our populace quite so upset at what is going on. It is my belief and my hope that in November this nonsense will be changed. When you consider new employees who would deign to run our government, let's find people who are aware of limits. Someone who loves America and doesn't need to turn her into a European Socialist State. And to you who would consider running, "It's the economy stupid". Got that???

Ron Scarbro April 9, 2010