I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2393 
To direct the Secretary of the Treasury to develop and present to Congress 
a legislative proposal to establish a consumption tax. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 17, 2013 
Mr. FATTAH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of the Treasury to develop and 
present to Congress a legislative proposal to establish 
a consumption tax. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Growth & 
Tax Reform Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United States, from its beginning in 
1790 to the present, has been free of a national debt 
for only two years, 1834 and 1835. 
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(2) After 1946, the national debt as a percent-
age of GDP declined, reaching a low of 32.5 percent 
in 1981. 
(3) The large budget deficits of the 1980s and 
1990s reversed this trend and pushed the percentage 
to another high of 49.5 percent in 1993. 
(4) The Federal budget surpluses from fiscal 
year 1998 to fiscal year 2001 were used to retire a 
portion of the publicly held national debt. 
(5) Between fiscal year 1997 and fiscal year 
2001, the publicly held portion of the national debt 
declined by more than $400 billion. 
(6) Since fiscal year 2002, a return to budget 
deficits has caused the debt to grow again. 
(7) The national debt has grown from 75.5 mil-
lion in 1790 to $16,781,967,702,405.37, as of April 
19, 2013. 
(8) Congress must consider innovative tax 
strategies to meet this fiscal challenge. 
(9) A consumption tax will assist in decreasing 
the total public debt outstanding by broadening the 
tax base to include revenue from untapped sources: 
foreign tourists, undocumented immigrants, the un-
derground economy, and multi-million dollar busi-
ness transactions. 
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(10) Implementing a consumption tax would 
simplify the current tax system. 
(11) At least 84 countries subscribe to some 
form of consumption taxation, including Afghani-
stan, Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Baha-
mas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, 
Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, 
Cape Verde, Chile, China, Comoros, Congo (DRC), 
Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fin-
land, France, Ghana, Germany, Greece, Guinea- 
Bissau, Indonesia, Ireland, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, 
Japan, Kenya, Korea, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, 
Liberia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Macedonia, Mada-
gascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nether-
lands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Por-
tugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, 
Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slo-
venia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swe-
den, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & 
Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uru-
guay, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Zambia, and 
Zimbabwe. 
(12) Under a consumption tax, personal savings 
are excluded from the taxable base thereby reward-
ing taxpayers for saving. 
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SEC. 3. CONSUMPTION TAX LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the 
Treasury shall develop and submit to Congress a legisla-
tive proposal to establish a consumption tax that is broad- 
based and progressive in nature. 
(b) PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Such proposal shall set forth 
the details of such a consumption tax and the rates 
that the Secretary estimates would eliminate the 
total public debt outstanding in 10 years, 20 years, 
and 30 years, respectively, under each of the fol-
lowing scenarios: 
(A) The consumption tax would be in addi-
tion to all Federal taxes in effect on the date 
of the enactment of this Act. 
(B) The consumption tax would replace the 
individual income tax imposed by section 1 of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 on earned 
income (as defined in section 32(c)(2) of such 
Code). 
(C) The consumption tax would replace the 
corporate income tax imposed by section 11 of 
such Code. 
(2) FEASIBILITY
AND
COMPARATIVE
ANAL-
YSIS.—Such proposal shall also include— 
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