Responding to all the recent talk of a value-added tax, AOL News poses the following question today: “Do we need a new way to tax citizens?”
In response, AOL posts several pieces about the pros and cons of a VAT (by Henry Aaron and Isabel Sawhill, Ira Stoll, and Veronique de Rugy). In addition, it also includes an abridged version of my National Affairs piece, “America in the Red,” which they titled “Don’t Take Anything Off the Table.”
If you haven’t found time for the full length version, with charts, you might want to try AOL’s abridged one. (Please note that they did the abridging.)
America In the Red is one of those essays that has “seminal work” and “instant classic” written all over it. With its reasoned, balanced and accessible analysis of the financial choices facing our country, as well as its sense of urgency, it may be as influential in the coming years as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was for an earlier age. Expect to see it more widely quoted and reprinted as time goes by. Kudos to you, Donald!