Rep. Joe Pitts (PA) wrote a piece today for the Daily Caller. See an excerpt of this article on the VAT here:
If you walk into an Apple store in the United States you can walk out with a brand new iPod for around $212. If you purchase from the same retailer in England, you can expect to pay the equivalent of $230. Why the difference? Much of this disparity is because of a value-added tax paid on manufactured products in Britain.
A value-added tax, or VAT, is a type of sales tax paid by raw materials producers, manufacturers, and retailers at each stage of production. This type of tax is common in most European nations, but does not exist in the U.S.
However, this situation may not last much longer. Paul Volcker, one of the President’s top economic advisors, has publicly called for a new VAT. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said that Congress should look into creating the new tax.
It is certainly true that our federal government is facing a budget crisis; we just don’t believe that a new VAT would balance our budget or allow our economy to create the millions of new jobs necessary to recover from the current recession.