A User's Guide to Proposals to Replace the U.S. Tax System and Strangle Fiscal Policy

This article reviews several familiar plans to alter the structure of taxation, including the flat tax, a VAT, and the USA Tax. With the significant exception of a simplified income tax system, every plan to replace the current U.S. federal tax system would move us in precisely the wrong direction. These plans would abandon income taxation entirely in an attempt to solve problems that do not exist, and they are based on a flawed ideal of a neutral tax code. The companion to these plans is an even more misguided set of proposals (some in the form of constitutional amendments) that could severely limit future fiscal policy