Editor's Note

Is a VAT the Answer to Our Deficit Problems?

By

April 20, 2010 RSS Feed Print
  • Comment (21)

Related Articles

Maybe this isn’t the best time to bring this up, with many of us just contemplating the damage on our tax returns, but there’s a new tax idea seeping its way into the public debate. It’s the Value Added Tax (VAT), the European staple that’s suddenly getting floated as a deficit panacea by politicians and economists up to and including the eminent Paul Volcker. This is a subject for one fine debate. Essentially a national sales tax, the VAT looks to be both efficient and addictive. It can variously placate and enrage folks on the left and the right. Sometimes simultaneously. I’d like to start a discussion on the merits and risks of the VAT. Give me your thoughts—or questions—at editor@usnews.com. And when we’re finished, maybe we can talk about the flat tax!

Tags:
sales tax,
taxes,
deficit and national debt

Reader Comments Read all comments (21)

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

All new taxes should be put to a vote, let the American people vote on it, not the cowards in Congress !!!!!!!!!!!!

jerrbarn of LA 12:46PM April 27, 2010

Yes we need more automation but. We need to lower prices and working hours. All this technology means we Have to adjust to it as well. We need more exorcise and more education.

Sure there are those who did not get laid off and have money to pay a politician to twist the facts so you can benefit on the backs of your neighbour and even family. But there are those of us who are not so lucky. there are those of us who are not like the people in the declaration

"all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed"

But then there are many more dreamers that cannot or will not see what is happening to them. As Albert Einstein said: “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them" We need to get back to the basics and advance into the future

Source: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

Don D. Brock of AZ 6:36PM April 25, 2010

THE VAT would be fine is we could eliminate the income tax--that ain't gonna happen

JOHN of FL 3:47PM April 25, 2010

Editor's Note

Brian Kelly was named editor of U.S.News & World Report in April 2007, nine years after joining the magazine. With more than 30 years of journalism experience, including covering Capitol Hill, politics, and the presidency both as a beat reporter and as an editor, Kelly is one of the nation’s most experienced magazine editors in steering national and international news content.

advertisement

Cartoons

advertisement