In an effort to find out, the Pew Charitable Trusts asked my Tax Policy Center colleagues Eric Toder, Jim Nunns and Joe Rosenberg to set up something of a cage match: In the blue trunks, a broad-based VAT (think 9-9-9 only much less complicated).

FORBES: Deficit-Fix Cage Match: VAT Vs. Higher Income Tax Rates

Probably the last thing plant operator Ouchi Hisashi saw before he passed out was a blue flash in the concentration of uranium he was mixing in a steel vat.

CNN: 'We're Scared for Our Baby'