“We need to get in step with 141 countries that use a VAT to compete in globalization. The VAT is rebated on exports, creating jobs and removes the subsidy of foreign imports. Substituting the 35% corporate tax with a 6% VAT is a tax cut and releases $1.2 trillion in off-shore profits that Corporate America can repatriate tax free and create millions of jobs. The VAT is on consumption rather than income - the more you spend the more you pay. Now the rich pays its fair share. In 2010, the corporate income tax produced $194.1 billion in revenues. A 6% VAT in 2010 would have produced $700 billion in revenues. Since the poor spend most of their income on food, health, and housing, exemptions for the poor still leave billions to pay down the debt. The VAT is self-enforcing — you either pay it or pass it on. Much of the IRS can be eliminated, cutting the size of government. The VAT has no loopholes, giving instant tax reform. It puts the tax lobbyists out of business. They will howl: “We can’t have a national sales tax.” Substituting the corporate tax with a VAT is not a sales tax. Corporate America merely factors in the 6% as a cost of production rather than 35%. The lobbyists will call for tax reform — the lobbyists’ playground. We always end up closing two loopholes and adding four more. It took us six years to find the Ethanol loophole. When I left the Senate in 2005, tax expenditures or loopholes were costing the budget $1.3 trillion every year.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-ernest-frederick-hollings/its-the-economy-stupid_2_b_1237247.html