Elephant number two is taxation of services e.g. rent. The NRST people are holding "imputed income" from living in your own house to avoid paying NRST on rent as an "ace up the sleeve". It's off the table while trying to push this disaster forward. When elephant number one fails to produce the needed revenue, elephant number two will take center stage as a real source of revenue. It amounts to federal property tax all dressed up as NRST on the fair rental value of the property where you reside.
The idea that government raises money by taxing itself defies logic. If that works, I say let's just tax government 500% on their spending and let everyone else off tax free! That's my revenue neutral tax plan.
The government clearly "taxes itself" right now in the form of paying its employees more money than might otherwise be required so these employees could send some of it back to the government in the form of taxes.
Certainly the government could have elected not to do it this way ... but they didn't and that money comes from (guess where) - tax revenues.
Your "elephant number two" would require a major alteration of the law and would certainly meet huge opposition - rightfully led by those who have been the impetus behind passing the bill in the first place. You're welcome to speculate about endless numbers of "what ifs" but that does not make them real - or even close.