VAT's Gotta Hurt!

An interesting story from once-Great Britain today illuminates America's future like a pair of hi-beam headlights on a dark, desolate country road:

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne increased the value-added tax rate to 20 percent from 17.5 percent in the first permanent change to the levy on sales of goods and services in almost two decades.

“The years of debt and spending make this unavoidable,” Osborne told Parliament in London in his emergency budget today as he announced a package of spending cuts and tax increases to cut the U.K.’s record deficit..."That is 13 billion pounds we don’t have to find from extra spending cuts...."

Because God forbid additional spending cuts should be enacted...

Related (to us, anyway):

White House budget director Peter Orszag plans to leave government in July, becoming the first member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet to depart, administration officials said Monday.... Orszag has two signature accomplishments: the stimulus bill andhealth reform, which he advocated from the beginning of the administration.

More on Orszag:

Orzag gave a big-spending White House some credibility with budget hawks, thanks to his CBO background...This credibility gave Orzag the ability to argue (with a straight face) that spending more now could save money over the long run.

And now that he's be revealed as a first-class bullsh*tter, he's running out of town. Bravery, Obama-style, I suppose. But VAT will be the result for the average American? Steny Hoyer drops some clues to the curious:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that tax increases will eventually be necessary to address the nation's mounting debt, raising a difficult election-year issue as Democrats fight retain control of Congress.
In the shorter term, Hoyer raised the possibility that Congress will only temporarily extend middle-class tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. He pointedly suggested that making them permanent would be too costly.

Because God forbid additional spending cuts should be enacted...

So VAT's gonna happen? I can't wait to hear what Orszag's replacement suggests, but methinks he will be of a like mind to Mr. Hoyer, and the aforementioned Chancellor of the Exchequer...