Peter J. Tanous never asks why the GOP tax cuts since 1986 have failed to produce the GDP which would have produced the missing revenues he would now recover with a VAT

 Sad!

Maybe he could ask his buddies Laffer and Moore!

VAT the Only Solution to Our $40 Trillion Debt Problem

Peter Tanous, The Hill

  

'Wasteful Spending Will Always Rise To The Level Of Revenues'

So says Arthur Laffer in support of Newt Gingrich in The Wall Street Journal, here:

Mr. Gingrich's flat tax proposals—along with his proposed balanced budget amendment—would put a quick stop to overspending and return America to fiscal soundness. No other candidate comes close to doing this.

Here is a corollary I learned from a Harvard-trained philosopher, PJWM:

'Work expands to fill the time allotted.'