Cruz wants 19% federal sales tax

Vox - Cruz has quietly stumbled into proposing a gigantic tax increase on middle-class retirees. ...Ted Cruz is quietly running on a 19 percent sales tax

Cruz is calling for a 19 percent federal sales tax that would apply to all purchases of goods and services made in the United States. This is possibly the single least voter-friendly idea one could imagine.

It's so toxic that he doesn't call it a 19 percent federal sales tax at all.

"For businesses, the corporate income tax will be eliminated," Cruz writes on his website. "It will be replaced by a simple Business Flat Tax at a single 16 percent rate."

This sounds like Cruz is calling for the replacement of the current loophole-ridden corporate income tax with a new flat corporate income tax featuring a broader base and a lower rate. But that's not what Cruz is proposing at all. His "business flat tax" is a sales tax, not a [tax on] corporate income. And it's a 19 percent sales tax, not a 16 percent one.