President Obama's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform gets underway tomorrow, a body of 18 members, 12 of whom come from the US Congress. Though it seems to me the natural debt reduction commission IS the US Congress, the pragmatist in me realizes that sometimes you need a "splinter" group to go off and look really hard at hard problems. The members have "pledged" to take initiatives agreed on by 14 of 18 members forward in Congress.
It sounds as if both spending cuts and tax increases are on the table. Republicans would be advised to ensure that a third option--tax reform--is on the lips of all its members, as shifting from an income-based taxation system to a consumption-based system is ultimately the smart, long play for the Party (and the country).
The Commission will make its initial report in December of this year (after the 2010 Elections, natch).
The danger with the VAT approach is that it will, in the hands of this band of thieves, be additive, not substitutive. Unless we can figuratively fumigate Congress in the polling booth this November, much higher taxes are coming, and with a vengeance.
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