Remember when Barack Obama pledged he wouldn’t raise taxes on anyone who made under $250,000? Remember when the Tax Day Tea Parties were all a bunch of nonsense because Barack Obama had yet to raise anyone’s taxes? Perhaps the protesters were more prescient than they’re given credit for. While their critics were indulging in the fantasy of a liberal president with a projected $9.3 trillion deficit over the next 10 years and a hankering to socialize the health care system who resorts to something other than tax hikes to pay for it all, the tea partiers were residing in the real world. In that world, a liberal president with a $9.3 trillion deficit, looming entitlement disasters, and dreams of creating a universally crappy but expensive health care system, floats a value-added tax. This is what “fundamental tax reform” might look like under a Democratic Congress and president: