After a non-binding Senate resolution sent the message that a value added tax was not an option, the White House sided with the Senate, as we pointed out in a previous article:

The issue came up because White House adviser Paul Volcker told a group in New York last week that taxes might have to be raised to bring budget deficits under control. He added that the value-added tax “was not as toxic an idea” as it had been in the past, according to a report by the Reuters news service.

The White House has distanced itself from the remarks, with officials saying that Volcker was not speaking for the Obama administration.

Turns out, the White House, specifically the President himself, still thinks the VAT is a viable option:

President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days.

Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, “I want to get a better picture of what our options are.”

After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted 85-13 last week for a nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution that calls the such a tax “a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America’s economic recovery.”

For days, White House spokesmen have said the president has not proposed and is not considering a VAT.

“I think I directly answered this the other day by saying that it wasn’t something that the president had under consideration,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters shortly before Obama spoke with CNBC.

After the interview, White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki said nothing has changed and the White House is “not considering” a VAT.

So, the President is saying it is an option, yet the Press Secretary and deputy communications director say it is not. Just what we need, more confusion from Washington.

In our article A VAT of Taxes for the Middle Class, we suggested that this type of consumption tax will completely destroy the wealth of individual Americans and businesses already struggling to survive in the middle of a depression.

Unless Mr. Obama intends to eliminate the income tax laws in the United States and replace them with a VAT, then the American people must completely reject this idea.