Yeah… lets give him more money. GREAT idea!
Tyler Cowen suggests that now may be time for a VAT:
3. I would prefer spending cuts, but voters seem too irrational to be willing to cut spending; here the libertarian argument comes back to bite us on the bum. They might be willing to cut spending once a financial crisis arrives (though maybe not), but then there will be days or only hours for decisive action.
4. We could, for now, wait and postpone fiscal reform. That means encountering a sudden collapse some number of years from now. We will then clean up the budget in some way, but under a TARP sort of mood rather than what we might do today.
He throws bones to both sides, promising 1/2 the new money for deficit reduction, and 1/2 for stuff Democrats want. I can assure you that the 1/2 called “spending” is the only part you have a 100% chance of getting.
The biggest problem with the deal is that Congress will lie their way around the deficit reduction part of it. They will put stuff “off the books”, or call some spending “investment” and throw it on the balance sheet as an “asset” or some other nonsense.
The basic problem we have, with a VAT or without, is we have a corrupt political class symbiotically dependent with 1/3 or so of our citizenry.
We can’ t trust them with our money now, why give them more of our money in the future?