VAT: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Inevitably Come?

Daniel Mitchell, of the CATO Institute, and Shawn Tully, editor at large at Fortune magazine, discuss whether a value-added-tax would be a good solution to solve the country's deficit problem. These guys get right to the point. My own take is that the overspending problem in Washington is not strictly an Obama phenomenon, though he has done nothing but pour gasoline on a fire that has been building for years. Having two of the most fiscally irresponsible Presidents in the history of the country back to back does not bode well for our future. There is no financial discipline in Washington today and neither party has the political fortitude to cut even a dime of spending, much less implement the kind of dramatic reductions throughout government that are required to restore the barest semblance of responsible stewardship. Something as simple as an overall spending freeze from this year to the next would be a welcome change in direction.  But the political discussion over the budget barely even mentions the spending side of the equation.  That is what is most troubling to me.  Just as the private sector must adjust to economic conditions, the government needs to downsize, reduce benefits, eliminate the unnecessary (and there is a lot of unnecessary) for the good of its citizens.  It needs to stop trying to play sugar daddy with other people's money.  To paraphrase Thatcher:  "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend."