As government revenues plummet and spending sky rockets, Washington is looking for all manner of ways to further burden the American people with taxes, including the value added tax, which which is essentially a sales tax on consumption. In A VAT of Taxes for the Middle Class we discussed the problems with the VAT and how it would stifle small businesses and economic growth.

It seems the Senate agrees:

The Senate voted 85-13 Thursday to pass a nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution that calls the value-added tax “a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America’s economic recovery.”

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.

…

Many academics – as well as some Republicans – have said over the years that a value-added tax would be a good way for the federal government to get its finances in order. The idea, however, is not popular on Capitol Hill.

First, we’d suggest to those readers whose senators voted in support of the value added tax, that you get these fools out of Congress as soon as possible. They are obviously disconnected from the reality of the implications of such a tax on an already strained populace:

• Daniel Akaka, Hawaii
• Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico
• Sherrod Brown, Ohio
• Robert Byrd, West Virginia
• Ben Cardin, Maryland
• Byron Dorgan, North Dakota
• Ted Kaufman, Delaware
• Carl Levin, Michigan
• Jack Reed, Rhode Island
• Tom Udall, New Mexico
• George Voinovich, Ohio
• Jim Webb, Virginia
• Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island

Second, we take issue with the asinine comment that a “value-added tax would be a good way for the federal government to get its finances in order.”

Here’s a better way: STOP SPENDING MONEY THAT WE DON’T HAVE.

We realize that most politicians take absolutely no personal economic risk by imposing extreme levels of taxation on their constituents, and as such, will continue to spend to infinity not realizing that our current outstanding debt load is somewhere in the area of 10 times GDP and roughly 60 times the government’s yearly tax revenues of about $2.5 Trillion.

Many of our elected representatives, it seems, missed the entire year of 3rd grade mathematics, and thus, they believe they can continue to borrow and spend indefinitely. When money gets tight, instead of cutting back, they would rather borrow fake money, printed up by the Federal Reserve than to take the prudent step that an individual or private business would be required to take in order to get their finances in order.

At this point we’ve spent so much money that we can’t even print enough to cover all of our costs (though Mr. Bernanke might argue with this statement). So, our brilliant legislators have opted to begin imposing taxes on anything and everything that moves or breathes.

Yes, we realize that you are not yet taxed for the inhalation of oxygen, but don’t be surprised if we find, embedded in the Cap & Trade bill, a provision that taxes the exhalation of carbon dioxide. You are, after all, contributing to air pollution when you dispel those noxious, toxic CO2 gases and taxing you for this repulsive act against mother earth will help offset your personal carbon footprint.

If there’s one thing that politicians are really good at, it’s the creativity of coming up with novel ways to annex your personal income.