Sorry folks, a Value Added Tax (VAT) is a Direct Tax and Direct Taxes are forbidden by the federal Constitution.  No wonder things are so screwed up; the Speaker of the House hasn’t yet read the Constitution upon which she depends for the existence of her job.   Of course, this could just be an underhanded ploy to give them an excuse to modify the Constitution and taxes would just be one of the restrictions they’d like to eliminate.   (See Article I, Section 9, Clause 4.)

By the way speaking of elimination, as an aside, since the federal Constitution is the document creating the United States (federal government); it would seem that suspending it would wipe out the very existence of the federal government.  Perhaps the plug to the umbilical cord the framers left with us to prevent the federal government from attempting to become a central government/power by removing its restrictions through suspension.  Something to think about.