Plan requires Biden’s PC.
Reuven Avi-Yonah 11, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, 2011, “The Political Pathway: When Will the US Adopt a VAT?” VAT Reader: What a Federal Consumption Tax Would Mean for America, https://repository.law.umich.edu/book_chapters/24
Can that happen here in America? It is hard to imagine President Obama, or any future U.S. presidential candidate, running for office on a platform that includes raising taxes. But suppose Obama was reelected in 2012. At that point, he could spend his new political capital on getting a VAT enacted without fear of having to run again.
The task would require leadership and skill in forging coalitions. Progressives would need to be persuaded that using a regressive tax to fund redistributive programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security is not a betrayal of their ideals. Rebating revenues to the poor will help. Conservatives would have to be persuaded that adopting a VAT will increase America's competitiveness, which can be achieved if the VAT revenue is used in part to cut other taxes (such as the corporate income tax). The states would have to be persuaded that a federal consumption tax will not cut into their revenue base. Perhaps some portion of federal VAT revenue must be allocated to the states?