Plus, it would make it harder for Big Ag to flood Mexico with corn and put small farmers out of business and on the road to San Diego. A win-win all over except for Big Ag and their senators.

Which is why it won't happen.

Coincidentally, I just got back from Walgreens, where the guy ahead of me had 3 giant bags of chips, several giant bottles of pop and hawaiian punch-type crap, several packages of toxic looking hot dogs and whitebread buns to match. Oh, and a 12 pack of pretentious bottled water -- superbowl supplies presumably. Not sure about the pop, but for everything else he'd have paid 2.5 percent tax because of the food/pharma exemption. If he'd had rogain that was prescribed he'd have paid the special rate for that, too.

The person behind me had a box of elastic bandages, assorted gauze and such, tylenol, toilet paper, and dish soap. She'd pay the 10 percent tax because none of them are necessities, by the county bureaucrats' reckoning.

I'm Libertarian enough to hate the government butting in and deciding what's a luxury and what ain't. Which is the common problem with the sales tax and the VAT. A teacher I used to know had a sailboat, so people thought she was rich. But she explained that she did without a car so she could keep the boat. A VAT would hit her hard, presumably, while a car would be considered a "necessity". She'd have to pay extra to the government for making a non-mainstream lifestyle choice that happens to be vastly less damaging to the commons. And on and on it goes -- micromanagement of the worst kind, the kind of nanny state bull that makes people despise liberals. Though it sure would be a cornucopia for the lawyers.

It's kind of telling of Libertarian Party types that they're too dumb or dishonest to recognize that a sharply progressive income tax and corporate tax is both the most fair and the least bureaucratic option there is if we accept that somebody has to pay for all this infrastructure, security, and safety net. Since they dropped the ball, I think it should be the foundation plank of the Democratic Party. Not holding my breath though.

FDR's response to progressive demands: "I agree. Now go out and make me do it."

The less sugar they consume, especially through beverages, the less their health care (and, by extension, ours) will cost. The longer their teeth will last. The more energy their kids will have.

This is a total win-win. I'm shocked at so-called progressives who object to this.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes