Bruce Bartlett, an otherwise astute observer of the economic and financial scene weighs in on the VAT once more. Just as he did in his book The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward, Bartlett stumps for the VAT as a solution to our growing fiscal instability. For someone who prides himself a realist on anything and everything related to our red-soaked balance sheet Bartlett is venturing into the realm of fantasy if he thinks the VAT stands a chance of ever being enacted.
Let's begin with the obvious, there is no way that any Republican would back a VAT as long as there is an income tax. Come to think of it I can't think of a politician alive that would go home to their district or state and explain who adding a new source of revenue for the federal government is good for them. So only way that you can get VAT is if you repeal the 16th Amendment. Let's go a bit further, our judicial branch is a bit more activist than in the late 19th century. Conservatives would not trust a strict repeal, they would want a repeal and replace with a prohibition on the implementation of a federal income tax. It is just too much and too academic.
The VAT would be an improvement over our current tax system, but the probability of it being put in place is highly unlikely. By the way, ignore the inflammatory title and read Bartlett's book. In his slim volume, in simple prose and a smattering of stats Bartlett lays out the challenges that we face. The slap at Reaganomics is the application of supply-side solutions to the current crisis. Bartlett actually defends (mostly) what the supply-siders were able to do in the '80's.
