Political history makes the VAT politically contentious.
Steve Mendelsohn 16, Steve Mendelsohn is the Senior Vice President, Global Tax and Accounting Market Development for Thomson Reuters, 05/05/2016, Inc, “How the Controversial Value-Added Tax Returned to U.S. Politics,” https://www.inc.com/steve-mendelsohn/how-the-controversial-value-added-tax-returned-to-u-s-politics.html, RMazhankou
So why did Cruz try so hard to distance himself from the term? Graetz explains that while a VAT certainly isn't as lethal a third rail as, say, social security, there's certainly lore about it being a candidate killer in American politics.
"President Nixon actually thought about adding a value-added tax shortly after the European countries had adopted them. He was in a meeting, and Dale Bumpers who was governor of Arkansas, stood up and said, 'Sales taxes belong to the states, they're the state's sources of revenue, and the federal government shouldn't get involved.' Nixon backed down fearing he would lose favor of the governors, who had much more sway back then," Graetz told me.
He continued to say that, back in the 1980s, a Democrat named Al Ullman (D-OR), who was chairman of Ways and Means Committee, talked about adding a VAT, and shortly after that he lost his election. He lost because he wasn't spending any time of his district, but the legend became that he lost it on the VAT, so that ultimately made politicians even more squeamish about publicly embracing a VAT.