The Value-Added Tax or VAT

There are many forms of federal taxes. The income tax, of course. Some are broad-based, such as the cap-and-trade carbon emission program, the payroll tax, or a national sales tax that the Europeans use.

The latter is also known as the value-added tax or VAT. In VAT, taxes are added at every level of sale and can become enormous. They are popular with bureaucrats as a means of government easily imposing layers upon layers of taxes on the public.

It helps after politicians have exhausted conventional means.

A VAT will affect everyone, the poor and the middle classes who the politicians have sworn to protect from tax increases.

So much for political promises.