THIS NAILS IT – AT 11:15 A.M. ET:  One of the new outrages we're faced with is the sudden chatter about the VAT – the Value Added Tax.  Just a few weeks after Congress recklessly passed new health-care entitlements, without any mention of tax increases, we're told by the usual suspects that we must consider a VAT, or go bankrupt.  George Will, in a superb column, nails not just the disgrace of the moment, but the strategy behind it:

When liberals advocate a value-added tax (VAT), conservatives should respond: Taxing consumption has merits, so we will consider it -- after the 16th Amendment is repealed.

A VAT will be rationalized as necessary to restore fiscal equilibrium. But without ending the income tax, a VAT would be just a gargantuan instrument for further subjugating Americans to government.

Believing that a crisis is a useful thing to create, the Obama administration -- which understands that, for liberalism, worse is better -- has deliberately aggravated the fiscal shambles that the Great Recession accelerated. During the downturn, federal revenue plunged and spending soared. And, as will happen for two decades, every day 10,000 more baby boomers are joining the ranks of recipients of Medicare and Social Security, two programs with unfunded liabilities of nearly $107 trillion.

In the context of this concatenation of troubles, the administration's highest priority was to put an enormous new health-care entitlement on the welfare state's rickety scaffolding. Why? Because the liberals' lunge to maximize government's growth depends on quickly creating a crisis that can be called a threat to the entitlement menu and to the currency as a store of value. Then the public can be panicked into accepting the addition of a VAT to the existing menu of taxes.

COMMENT:  Wonderfully stated.  What must disturb us is the utter contempt the Obama crowd has for the American people.  Like most people with superiority complexes, they believe we can be eternally tricked.  Or, they believe that enough of us can be tricked to win elections.

For those who believe the Obamans have swindled us, you haven't seen anything yet.  Wait until we're panicked into accepting a VAT.  And wait until we're all charged with racism for questioning VAT, and taking things away from "the kids."  It's coming to a CNN outlet near you.

April 18, 2010