WH Denies VAT "Under Consideration...Has Not Done VAT Calculations"

I asked several White House officials today if, as was suggested in today's New York Times, the White House was doing any calculations on the amount of revenue it could raise from a value-added-tax.

This is the response I received from White House spokesman Matthew Vogel:

"The President has not proposed this idea nor is it under consideration. The President has passed historic tax cuts for middle-class families and continues to push for more tax cuts. The President is not proposing to cut the deficit at the expense of middle-class families."

As for the reference in today's New York Times to White House calculations on a Value Added Tax (VAT), another official said: "VAT calculations are widely and publicly available because they have been made by outside analysts from AEI (American Enterprise Institute) to Brookings (Institution) and even the Bush Treasury Department. The Obama Administration has not done VAT calculations."

Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman and current chair of Obama's President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said in September he thought a VAT or carbon-based tax might be necessary to tackle the federal debt. At the same time,Volcker said his preference would be for Congress to tackle spending before imposing new taxes like a VAT.