TAX ALERT - AT 6:45 P.M. ET:  They're scheming again.  From The Hill:

A new value-added tax (VAT) is "on the table" to help the U.S. address its fiscal liabilities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday night.

Pelosi, appearing on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show" asserted that "it's fair to look at" the VAT as part of an overhaul of the nation's tax code.

"I would say, Put everything on the table and subject it to the scrutiny that it deserves," Pelosi told Rose when asked if the VAT has any appeal to her.

The VAT is a tax on manufacturers at each stage of production on the amount of value an additional producer adds to a product.

COMMENT:  There will be new taxes, but probably not until new "services" are put in place.  That's the way the game is played.  Put the "services" in place, and then say they'll have to be cancelled unless there's a tax increase to pay for them.  People panic because they've come to depend on those services, and so the increase goes through.

No one ever asks if the "services" are worth what we're paying for them, but that's another story. 

October 6, 2009