BEWARE of this, because a tactic they might use is to propose something outrageous and then "settle" for what they really wanted in the first place. Like the kid who figures out that if he asks a parent for a bowl of ice cream, they will probably say "no" (worth a try anyway) but may offer a cookie instead, whereas if they started by asking for a cookie they'd have got nothing.

The federal government has never charged a federal sales tax (as far as I know, although they did have outrageous "excise" taxes on telephone service that were obstensibly imposed to fund the Spanish-American war, but did not end until LONG after that war ended) but I'm sure these crooked Republicans have looked longingly at other countries that have federal sales taxes or so-called "Value Added Taxes" and have wanted to bring that to the US. The problem with that is that they are taking what has been a function of individual states and moving it to the federal level. The thing is, individual state voters often decide if there will be a sales tax and how much it will be, and that money gets spent in the state it's collected in. But if the federal government takes that over not only will the taxes be more oppressive (maybe not at first, but they will continue to rise) and the people will have much less of a say in it, but beyond that to you really want this group of Republicans controlling how your taxes are spent? Bet not much of what they collect gets back to your city or state! And the ONLY reason they want to do this is so they can avoid taxing the wealthy assholes that help get them elected!

Anyway, this is not something we should EVER let them start, because once the have that money spigot open a little they will just keep turning it on more and more to fund the projects they like (generally things that will increase the wealth of billionaires!). At this point this may be mostly poerformative because the President would veto any such legislation if it ever got to his desk (one would hope, anyway) but I have to wonder why they would even propose something like this in the first place. And all I can think is that sometimes if you want a little but you ask for a whole lot, you'll get the little that you really wanted in the first place.