Ever notice that the government never has a problem coming up with money if they need it for hookers or expensive vacations… but when you need it, there’s another tax.

The “border tax” proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan is a “ridiculous” idea that will cause the price of gasoline and other goods to skyrocket, Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, tells Newsmax TV.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s a step to value added tax and value added taxes hit the very people who have elected Donald Trump president,” Forbes said Thursday to Steve Malzberg on “America Talks Live.”

“It’s going to raise the cost of gasoline for millions of motors 30 cents a gallon, raise the cost of vehicles $2,500, raise the cost of stuff you buy at Wal-Mart and Kmart. Do you want to do that to finance a corporate tax cut? Oh, I can see the Democrat ads on this already.”

As well, Forbes said, countries around the world affected by such a tax would retaliate, “so at the end of the day you’d have disrupted everything, you divide your base.”

The border tax, a key component of a tax-reform package being pushed by House Republicans, would slap as much as a 20 percent U.S. tax on imports, while exports would be exempt.

The Trump administration has yet to officially weigh in on the GOP proposal, but last week Larry Kudlow, a top economic adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, said the White House leaning towards such a a levy.

Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said on Wednesday it would be bad for business.

“Whether it is raw material or specialty parts, roughly 50 percent of our nation’s imports consist of inputs for U.S. production and manufacturing,” Flake said in a speech to the Senate.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/Steve-Forbes-Border-Tax-Trump/2017/03/09/id/777881/