Republicans Promoting VAT

Republican Platform Calls for Value-added Tax Scheme

Both Democrats and Republicans love confiscatory taxation, they just disagree on the best way to force it on the American people. Republicans are especially squeamish about open taxation because they have spent the last few decades claiming they are the party of small government and minimal taxation, which is of course a lie.

Despite all the self-serving rhetoric, Republicans have worked closely with Democrats to impose more taxes on working middle class Americans. The latest example is the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act, which is, despite its misleading title, an internet sales tax. “They introduced their internet tax as an amendment to a Senate small business bill, but that bill stalled. Now they are confident they can sneak the internet tax into a lame duck session of Congress, just in time for Christmas shopping,” Erick Erickson wrote for RedState in July. A lot of Republicans love the idea.

Romney also favors cap-and-trade and a carbon tax, although he has addressed the issue obliquely in order to pretend he is some kind of “conservative” opposed to further decimating the middle class with taxation. In 2007, when asked if he was in favor of adopting carbon taxes, Romney said: “Carbon tax? That’s something we’re looking into.” Romney’s economic adviser, Gregory Mankiw, took to the pages of the New York Times in September of 2007 and argued in favor of carbon taxes.

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Related: GOP Shocker: Value-Added Tax Plank – Barrons