Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Pelosi Floats Idea of VAT to Pay for Health Care

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. -- Frederic Bastiast (1801-1850)

In a subtle admission that Congress's Health Care proposal cannot be paid for without new taxes, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is at last being honest when she says she that new taxes need to be looked at to pay for these massive new spending programs. However, it is beyond me how a Value Added Tax at every step of the production of a product will level the playing field for American manufacturers. I have trouble getting past the immediate and real impact on American consumers of raising the prices of all American made goods across the board. Even more baffling is her claim later in the interview that this will not raise taxes on middle class Americans. Good grief. Just who does she think is ultimately going to bear the burden of such taxes? The short answer: anyone who buys anything. This type of tax will hurt low income earners the most. The citizens need to start asking themselves some tough questions, like just how of their income should the government be entitled to take.... 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%? And why can't the government stop spending so much money, why can't they control the impulse to spend recklessly and stupidly, why can't the government live within its means and stop pushing the country towards bankruptcy and driving down the value of the dollar. Sneaky forms of taxation like the VAT should be fought against by every citizen.

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