There is no way Congress will eliminate ALL Military Spending and even if Congress does you are still looking a huge budget that can NOT be paid out of a Sales Tax. Most states that provide anything more than the bare minimum services to their citizens have an income tax for the same reason the Federal Government has a Income Tax, sales taxes can NOT provide the needed revenues.
For more on the Budget see this Budget Simulator:
http://www.nathannewman.org/nbs/The 2004 US budget is $2672 billion in Spending. Gross Domestic Product is 10.99 trillion (See
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html for GDP estimate).
Gross NON-Governmental Product (GDP less US Government Spending is:
10,999 Billion
-2,672 Billion
or Approximately: $8,327 Billion Dollars from which the $2,672 Billion in US governmental Spending must be derived from (I am ignoring State and Local Government expenditures, this is a great error but I can not find a good web site for such data on a national scale through I admit I only serach briefly).
If the Income tax has to be replaced with a Sales Tax the Sale Tax rate has to be 32% on EVERY ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN THE US (Including sales from Businesses to Businesses and sales to the Government, both of which do NOT happen in a real sales tax AND sales of homes, which are NOT subject to a Sales tax in most states and including State and Local Government expenditures as being taxable which they are not).
If we eliminate Defense Spending (A complete impossibility) you save $446.1 in the budget. Billion Dollars so the budget is now $2114 Billion out of a 10,999 Billion Budget leaving you $8,885 to work with but the tax rate will still have to be 20%.
20% sounds nice, but that means you tax EVERYTHING, food, cars, homes, business to Business sales, gasoline, etc. Please do not forget my "great error" of includeing State and Local Government purchases and expenditures as being subject to the tax, something that will not happen for if it does the following will also occur:
"Here is your $174 Welfare check, less the 30% Federal Sales tax so the total you receive will be $122.00"
"Here is your $1500 DUI Fine, it is $1950 including the Federal Sales Tax".
"We have had to raise your local Taxes to pay the Federal Sales Tax on the salt we used on the roads last winter".
"The school lunch program will be include the 30% Federal Sales Tax".
"The State has to increase its Sales tax rate to raise Revenue to pay the Federal Sales Tax on the items it purchased over the last year".
As I said the assumptions behind a National Sales Tax is that ALL economic activities in the US can be taxed at the rates stated. The above are Economic Activities that will NOT be covered by a Federal Sales Tax (and if there are will FORCE drastic State and Local Tax Increases to pay the tax).
If we go into the problems with Business and a Sales tax on their Activities all that you need to see if the sales tax rate on items as it goes through the Chains of Commerce. If I build a widget and sell it to a business that buys widgets I pay the 30% on my sale (goes to his costs). He sells it to a distributor of Widgets (who pays 30% Sales Tax). The distributor than sell it to a dealer who sells it with his 30% sales tax (Two more 30% taxes). Pretty soon you are paying over 100% of the value of the Item in Sales taxes.
Even Europe which uses a Added Value Tax (which is a Sales tax designed to work around the problem of a National Sales Tax) do NOT raise most of their Revenues from the VAT. In a VAT each party in the chain of commerce pays the VAT tax on the difference between what he paid for the item and what he sells it for (Thus it is a tax on Value Added NOT on the total price of the item).
States which uses Sales tax get around the above problem by taxing only the end buyer of an item, but thus misses most of the transactions that occurs in the Economy forcing even higher rates on the transactions that are caught in the net of the Sales Tax.
Remember many transaction in our economy are NOT sales, for example Dividends received, debts paid off etc, property swaps (where two people exchange property) and gifts (Through the gift giver gets to pay a sales tax) and even inheritance.
My point here is to show you how much revenue any tax HAS TO BRING IN.
Sales taxes can NOT bring in the needed revenue, you have to tax wealth. Sales taxes because they do NOT tax wealth are a poor source of Tax revenues, Land Taxes and Income Taxes tax Wealth and as such much better sources of tax income.