VAT is Ridiculous!

President Obama himself, the other day, stated that we are out of money. Yet, he continues to tout and talk up his "Universal Health Care" reform. A program which will cost Americans trillions of dollars. I know what you are thinking! How can we afford a program worth trillions of dollars if we are out of money Mister President? Good question and here is the answer; its called a VAT.

In a story that the media has mysteriously not covered in depth or at all, lawmakers and experts are looking into the idea of imposing a "Value-Added Tax" (VAT). What is a VAT, you might ask? Well, its a federal level tax that you will pay on everything you purchase. The idea has been gaining momentum in the United States as deficits continue to grow out of control. President Obama and Congress want a report by 4 December 2009 to come up with ideas as to how to pay for everything we can't afford. This VAT is a globally accepted idea of which over 130 countries use. Academics are saying that a VAT of anywhere from 10% to 25% would be needed to pay for all of the programs Democrats and Republicans are putting forth. That means that you will now be paying a "sales tax" on top of a "sales tax" (for those states that have them).

This is just infuriating! The first question is, what implications would this have on the sovereignty of states? Many states (to include New Hampshire to my north) have no sales tax and do not want a sales tax. This is how they attract people to come live and stay in the state (unlike Massachusetts to its south). This would be a tax that the people would have no say in. It would be a power move by the federal government to show who's the boss and to expand well beyond what it should.

Also, why is this being thought of now? I don't know if those in power have noticed, but, we are in a recession. Our buying power is smaller than it was even a year ago. This could completely diminish our buying power. Yeah, it would be great to have health care; which oh by the way I already have, but, I would rather like to be able to go to the grocery store and ummm buy food. We can't buy as much as we could so we the people have tightened our belts and are doing that thing called buying less. Why can't our government do the same? Why not wait until we are out of a recession to look into these programs? Why not ask the American people by letting us vote on the ideas of a VAT or Universal Health Care?

Furthermore, in recent years I have accused Democrats (especially in Massachusetts) of just following the idea of tax and spend, tax and spend, tax and spend. My friends have always rebutted, "No... We don't do that anymore!" Thus, we elected Governor Deval Patrick, President Obama, and our current Congress. Yet, what is the idea of a VAT which would pay for a program we don't want? Oh yeah TAX AND SPEND! Its time you tell your government to stop it before you are paying an extra $20-$50 for groceries everytime you go!

And by the way, didn't we start a war over being over taxed? I don't know I'm bad at history!

The Washington Post has a great article on this issue.

Where is our money going to?

Today, while reading the paper, a story caught my eye. In my hometown there is talk of laying off three (3) officers from our police force. This is truly sad because these are three families that will be affected. This, however, is not an isolated incident. My former hometown, a minor city, laid off over thirty (30) officers in the past few years. All throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts towns are being forced to make these decisions to cut security forces, firefighters, public workers, and teachers.

What I want to know is... how are we in so much debt that we are being forced to cut essential forces? We live in a state that taxes us for almost everything possible. In fact the governor is discussing raising more taxes to make up for the debt. What do we get for these taxes? Honestly, I have no clue! We are not getting the police and firefighters we need. We are not getting the funding for education and teachers we need. We are not getting quality roads to drive around on(because quite frankly the road maintenance is horrible).

So, I ask, what are we paying for? Some simply blame the economy is causing a rise in prices for programs which the government is responsible for. But, what are these programs? Why in a time in which we can buy less, afford less, and the dollar is becoming worth less is our government spending more and taxing more? In a time like this the government should cut all non-essential programs. The government should cut spending and maybe give the common man more money in his pocket. More money in the common man's pocket means that he is more likely to go out and buy something and, surprise, surprise, maybe this will help out the economy.

Where have these promises been, by both our governor and our president, to a) balance the budget and b) go line by line to cut wasteful spending?