@oralloy,
I'm really opposed to a value added tax. It lets congress sneak up with tax increase, kind of under the radar. Anyhow, if you go for a straight forward VAT, it's going to be horribly regresive. If you start making exceptions, you add to complexity - like is a frozen dinner a grocery, or is it a restaurant meal, which could have different rates and protocols.
I do agree that we are going to need some tax increases, and in all honest, the middle class is really where the money is. We can tax the bejezus out of the billionaires, but we're going to have to find a way to get more billionaires to tax if we don't also tax the middle class.