"Sales tax is the most economically beneficial tax..., encouraging savings, reducing consumption, ..."
Encouraging savings and reducing consumption might be good things for society, but it seems that they hurt the economy (less trade, fewer jobs) rather than benefiting it.
Savings would be a good thing, but I don't think the banks care to pretend they want to encourage savings any more ... au contraire. The 5% interest passbook savings rate - which the Depression/lWW2 generation enjoyed - "encouraged" savings ... until it got stripped away after the S&L bailout and was never replaced.
So the "good thing" would have to come from Congress. Good luck with that.
Saving money and reducing consumption hurts the economy in the short term, but in the long term it encourages capital investment, lending, and other behavior that creates sustainable jobs and more trade. Whether or not an increase in sales tax will have those effects on Americans has yet to be seen.
It also only applies to the upper tiers of society. For poorer people, they are going to be able to save less because essentials cost more, and go further into debt if a catastrophe strikes.
Encouraging savings and reducing consumption might be good things for society, but it seems that they hurt the economy (less trade, fewer jobs) rather than benefiting it.