American Republic Online

This looks promising:

A U.S. Treasury report on ways to cut corporate taxes will include discussion of a national sales tax, a senior Treasury official told CNBC.

The U.S. currently has no national sales tax, also known as a value added tax, or VAT, though many states do. The tax would be one option to help offset revenue lost from lowering corporate taxes. The report is due in the coming weeks.

Of course, a sales tax is not the same thing as a VAT tax, but it’s encouraging that the government is recognizing that we can’t keep taxing business as much as we do and expect them to stick around (or even incorporate here). Note this, it’s important (emphasis added):

But the Treasury document will also discuss cutting corporate taxes and not offsetting them because, the official said, of the urgency to bring U.S. rates in line with competing nations. Both developed and developing nations are cutting corporate taxes to the point where the U.S. rate is no longer competitive, the official said.

We are competing with other countries not only for citizens, but also for corporations.

Consider, for a moment, who is flooding into America, and who is leaving. Certainly we don’t need to point our readers to our Southern border to see that we have become a magnet for hourly laborers. Couple that with that fact that we are not attracting corporations or high-paying jobs, or that we are driving them away with high income tax rates.  Indeed, students who used to come here for their education and then stay for their career are now going back to their home countries, taking their skills and abilities (and high salary) with them.  Put the two together and what do you get?

It should come as no surprise that this is happening. Look and listen to our politicians. Health care for all. Retirement for all. etc. And we’ll do it by raising taxes on the “rich,” who, wait a minute, where did they all go?
PS (Here’s an idea: there is a solution that eliminates corporate taxation and uses a sales tax: it’s called the Fair Tax.)