Taxation was nothing new to the U.S. by the time the new tax system took place.

FORBES: Guess What Turned 100 This Weekend?

In place of the old taxes, the reform calls for a new consumption-based tax system, largely via expanding and slightly increasing the state sales tax.

FORBES: Why All U.S. States Should Eliminate The Income Tax

If a formula apportionment system had been in place, the world would have been left with much higher tax rates, and thus less investment and economic growth.

FORBES: Targeting Multinationals, the OECD Launches New Scheme to Boost the Tax Burden on Business

That is what helped create the mess in the first place: that a country of barely a million people has become an international tax haven with an overgrown banking system.

BBC: Cyprus bank crisis: defiance and fear in Nicosia