Volcker: Stiff new tax needed to cover spending at 25% of GDP

Anne Leary posts on the defeat in the House of the first YouCut program selected by the public to be cut from the federal budget. A 2.4 billion dollar welfare program was selected for cutting but Democrats in Congress preferred to keep the program. As Paul Volcker, head of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, notes in this Naked Emperor clip spending is currently up to 25% of GDP. There is obviously little stomach in this Democratic Congress to cut spending leaving little alternative but the adoption of a "stiff new tax" to close the gap in spending. Volcker lists a few alternatives such as a carbon tax, energy tax and the dreaded VAT.

Related: The grass is not always greener in a green economy. "Spain admits that the green economy as sold to Obama is a disaster"