[Veracious Poet]

I think you forget that we could choose what we wanted to purchase, rather than have a gun held to our heads for a portion of our income...

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. ;-)

[Fledermaus]

I could give you every argument the left would use against that..."food isn't a choice", "medicine isn't a choice", etc.

And you'd need some mass product boycott movement to effect tax collections. Sure, the individual can easily change his tax based on expenditures. But given the sales tax rates for most states along with a federal tax would be close to 25% or more. So small individual decisions wouldn't mean much on phones, cable, computers, prepared food, etc. That turns into just maximizing disposable income after the sales tax which is no different with an income tax. Those same changes in expenditures will save the same amount of money overall.

Now, a consumption tax based on income level less savings and investments and personal deductions only with a flat rate sounds easier, fairer, less complex and really would need much of a bureau to run the operation. It could be probably be handled by the banks and other financial institutions.

But since it's Congress, they'd screw that up also.