A Giant VAT of Trouble

There is something very Halloween about a VAT, but we are not talking witches and goblins.

Spooky enough to scare any citizen, the proposed VAT tax is truly a modern-day boiling cauldron of double, double, toil, and trouble. Why double? Precisely because the VAT tax being proposed in the United States is a tax-on-top-of-a-tax, as opposed to many European nations which eschew an income tax for a VAT tax in its stead. But Pelosi is thrilled with this proposition. I'm sure somewhere along the lines we'll hear someone in Congress cackling half-baked truths, "A VAT tax will make our exports more competitive. Har, har, har!"

The fact Pelosi and Podesta can speak so freely about schemes that are clearly designed to doubly punish consumers is baffling. Honestly, I have nothing cogent to say about this because it's just so obviously bad.

So watch the above video by Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute if you need convincing and then read some Shakespeare, 'cause it's awesome.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

from Macbeth

A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.

Enter the three Witches.

1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

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