We are Our Own Worst Enemy

Through the Actions of Many of Our Current Political Leaders

Currently over 150 nations have a value-added tax, which has been instrumental in their rampant rise from abject poverty to wealth and influence. The foreign VAT was introduced in 1954 by the French Tax Authority, almost a decade after World War II, in order to help Europe rebuild its countries ravished by war. The VAT provided rebates to European manufacturers, which helped subsidize their rebuilding efforts with money from American companies who were exporting to Europe. Today this foreign VAT is still the most important source of state finance in France, accounting for 50 percent of state revenues. This is why they are so extremely successful in relation to the size of their economy and their comparative productive output.  

While the foreign VAT helped get European nations back on their feet, it simultaneously put the U.S. at a great competitive disadvantage. When the foreign VAT was implemented, the U.S. was more concerned with helping out other countries than itself, and as the world's superpower we were in a position to take on this role. Today, however, we can no longer afford to pay this foreign tax. The foreign VAT is instrumental in creating a huge trade deficit for us – running $1.4 million per minute  (around $700 billion annually).  In the past decade that deficit has accumulated to over $5 trillion – almost half of our national debt, now reaching towards $13 trillion. Our trade deficit equates to money flowing out of the U.S. which only comes back to the U.S. not to buy our goods but to buy our companies, land and other strategic assets. Meanwhile foreign  countries utilizing their foreign VAT systems have their exports subsidized for their benefit at a rate as high as 19 percent in some countries, putting us at a most  competitive disadvantage.  

The U.S. desperately needs its own domestic value-added tax to place us on a level playing field with other countries instead of causing us to be so competitively disadvantaged. We have no tariffs and no defenses against their protective mercantilistic trading practices. Nations we ship to protect their companies assuring our exports don't under cut their competitive conditions, while these same nations can ship anything to our open borders free of charge and free of inspections. This is instrumental in putting thousands of our companies out of business. Our underfunded FDA only inspects 1 percent of the goods entering the U.S. We cannot afford to fund the FDA with our ever increasing debt and our lack of tariffs and taxes. Other nations hold U.S. products for numerous intensive inspections, making it harder to get what little goods we still make into the hands of foreign consumers. Other nations' industries are subsidized with American money, yet we do little to subsidize our own companies. When we do it is done in last minute bailouts that damage our companies reputations. While we waste resources penalizing U.S. companies, other nations are taking over whole industries.  

A national VAT would allow the U.S. to cut the income tax, putting more money back into the pockets of Americans, which they could then put back into the economy. The VAT would also level the playing field with our competitor nations. Currently the VAT is one sided, it only benefits other countries as American dollars subsidize foreign industries. If we collected a VAT, the money could be used to rebuild America – creating jobs in our time of need.   

When we step back and note the dramatic rapid descent of our economy, we see our country has fallen from being a superpower and is now a country that is:
*heavily in debt
*forced to operate with a destroyed industrial infrastructure
*liquidating thousands of our best companies
*rendered most uncompetitive with most other trading countries
*forced to live on imports to function and even exist

We must ask ourselves, why are our leaders not doing anything to stop it?  

Are we blind?  

Have we become stupefied by the uncontrolled, unchecked food and medicine that we import to live on? To a great extent, it is clear that our leaders must have been bought off by lobbyists who work against this country's greater good. They are working more for those who fund their campaigns for re-election than for the votes that put them in office. Certainly any well intended elected official whose interests are to better our country's conditions can see the folly of our ways. Surely they would want to stop our destructive plunge off an economic cliff.  

Senator John McCain sponsored a bill to oppose our much needed national VAT. His bill was approved 84-13.  Many experts have recognized that a European-style consumption tax is the most efficient way to rein in soaring budget deficits. Conservative stalwarts such as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker - now an advisor of President Obama, Charles E. McLure - a tax economist in the Reagan administration and economist and former Reform Party Vice Presidential candidate Pat Choate have all endorsed the idea in one form or another. So why don't our Senators realize this? If an enemy wanted to see that our country continues to slide further into dependence and poverty, they would be taking the same actions taken by John McCain and these Senators by stopping anything that might solve our present problems.   

We must ask the question, who are our elected leaders working for? Given our current economic position, it is obvious our representatives are not working for the best interest of our country.   

When our fate and future rests in the hands of our own elected officials – who may be doing very detrimental things to our economy, and who may not be trained or qualified for the job – we need to begin questioning our leaders actions. While it may sound like a far out proposal, we should ask them whose best interest are they working toward. Do we need to set up polygraph tests to get to the truth? As important as this may be to protect us from the ill effects of our political leaders, these same guidelines should be implemented on lobbyist groups. Nearly all lobbyists are former elected officials or other former government employees.  

We need a way to make our officials responsible for the current damage they are effecting on the country.

Click Here to Learn More About the Value Added Tax (VAT)