THE ARROGANCE ROLLS ON – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  Have you ever seen a more arrogant, self-righteous administration?  When have you last seen a president who seems so willing constantly to fly in the face of public opinion? 

Now we have the new trial balloon, floating grandly above us.  To pay for this administration's recklessness, we must, say some stern people, adopt a VAT, a value added tax.  Why, that's just what we need to get us back on the road to economy recovery, more taxes!  Are they not brilliant?  Are you not impressed with their College Board scores?

The Washington Examiner deals with the idea, giving it the respect it deserves:

When drug addicts do speedballs, they combine cocaine and heroin in one massive dose that lets them experience the former drug's instant rush with the euphoria induced by the latter. Druggies say it's an incredible high, but it's also often a short one because the cocaine effects wear off quickly and the addict dies from an acute heroin overdose that paralyzes the lungs. Sounds a lot like what Washington's political establishment is trying now to avoid admitting its spending addiction.

The political speedball would combine the quick rush of income tax increases with the euphoria induced by a value-added tax on consumption. Tax increases typically produce a revenue spurt that quickly cools off as people find creative ways to evade them, while the VAT keeps taxing consumption at every stage from production to purchase of a product. European VATs typically create substantial revenue streams, but stifle entrepreneurial energy and job creation. That's why all of Europe's welfare states are slow-growth economies.

And...

...House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has long pushed for a VAT, predicted it will come soon in "a larger overhaul of the tax code."

And...

...the fundamental problem here is not that Americans pay too little in taxes, it's that Washington politicians can't stop spending more and more of our money every year. By 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office, federal spending will equal 90 percent of the country's gross domestic product. So our politicians clearly have no intention of checking into spending rehab. They're counting on getting that euphoria with the VAT fix. If they do, the rest of us will be left with a dead economy.

COMMENT:  Unbelievable, incredible.  They just passed a health "reform" bill, claiming it will save money.  Now they're telling us we need the VAT to compensate for the huge debts that health bill, plus other "reforms," will bring. 

The people pushing us must think we're very stupid.  But that's the point.  That's exactly what they think.

Will the VAT get through?

I think the issue is in doubt.  People on our side know the damage it can do.  But Obama and his crowd will simply say to the American people, "Without a VAT, no more health care."  That's the way the game is played.  Scare the people into being taxes.

Oh, of course we'll be told that the VAT will be fashioned so that the poor and middle class are not hurt.  Yeah, right.  As if the poor and middle class aren't hurt by a dying economy. 

The Dems are building up a huge class of citizens dependent on the government.  They are the Pauls who receive what we rob from the Peters.  They will vote for the VAT.  They will vote for Obama.  They will have their free lunch.  And a lot of great boys and girls who, in previous times, might have dreamed of doing something great with their lives, will sit around and ask, "Why bother?"

Thus a civilization dies.

April 9, 2010