The growing media monopoly dilutes and distorts the national dialog, and thereby destroys the basis for democracy. We must find ways to rebuild community and learn to talk to each other directly . Sales tax and use fees tax primarily the horizontal spike. The pre-Reagan progressive income tax drew more from the vertical spike. The flat tax would shift the burden downscale even more.
Simplification is unrelated to the issue of where the money is coming from.
The proposal to eliminate the income tax entirely would be disastrous. The vertical spike would thereby escape virtually all of its tax obligations and the burden would be born almost entirely by the horizontal spike, both through increases in other forms of taxation and reduced services. The income tax originally taxed ONLY the vertical spike. The economy is a complex system, but it is essentially a human invention. It is not enough to create a strong economy.