I would actually go with a flat VAT across the board, with a rebate for the poorest 20% or so. The problem with exempting food is that telling food from non-food is easy at the consumer end, but telling which chemicals are going into food and which are not at the back end is a mess.

For the income tax, some sort of simple tiers, say 15% kicking in at 100K and 40% kicking in at 300K would be better. I have no idea where the number would really have to be to balance it out, but I don't like the idea of a system where there is no tax up to some limit and then a one step jump to a very high tax.

As for getting there, it ain't happening right now. A lot of economists have been talking about a national VAT to raise money, but nobody in Washington is taking it seriously. This will change if/when the country actually runs into the practical borrowing limits or the inflationary spiral begins to kick in.

Jay