Volcker suggests deficit-cutting taxes

NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) -- Presidential adviser Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, said budget deficits may force the United States to raise taxes.

Volcker said a value-added tax used frequently in Europe -- essentially, a sales tax -- "was not as toxic an idea" as it was in previous years, The Hill newspaper reported Wednesday.

He also said a tax on carbon or energy use might be required to lower the deficit.

Bottom line: "If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes," he said in remarks at the New York Historical Society.

A White House official responded by saying, "The president is not proposing to cut the deficit at the expense of middle-class families."