[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11349-11350]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                VAT TAX IS ONE TAX AMERICA CAN'T AFFORD

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, we've heard a lot lately about the need for a 
European-style value-added tax in the U.S. to solve our budget problem. 
And just yesterday, the ruling coalition in Britain announced that it 
wants to raise their nation's value-added tax from 17.5 percent to 20 
percent. It's estimated that this increase would cost 163,000 jobs and 
reduce consumer spending by $5.3 billion in the United Kingdom.

[[Page 11350]]

  It's not a surprise that the VAT tax is creeping up in Britain. The 
average rate in Europe is now around 20 percent, and Greece raised 
their VAT rate to 21 percent as part of their bailout agreement. This 
is yet more evidence that the VAT taxes are easy for countries to raise 
during times of fiscal crisis.
  With so much discussion about an American VAT, we have to be aware of 
what the true cost of such a tax would be to our own job growth and 
consumer spending. Early proposals might call for a 5 percent VAT tax, 
but in truth, the seemingly easy revenue would make it all too easy for 
the U.S. Government to quickly raise taxes to European levels. This 
seemingly easy tax revenue would have a great cost--American jobs. The 
VAT tax is one tax we can't afford in America.

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