"[O]n life support," says US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)of the "Border Adjustment Tax," proposed during last year's GOP presidential primaries  by US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and backed by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI). If the idea is indeed dead, American workers and consumers should heave a sigh of relief. It's a very bad idea, in more ways than one.

The BAT is promoted as a "tax on imports." Which, I guess, is technically accurate, but doesn't tell the whole story. It's not just a tax on  imports. It's a tax on people who buy the imports. That is, it's a tax on you.

For obvious reasons, retail merchants don't like the idea very much. It would force them to raise prices on lots of items. Which is the same reason you shouldn't like it, unless you like paying more for stuff than you pay now.

For equally obvious reasons, some American manufacturers love the Border Adjustment Tax. Every extra dollar you have to pay in tax for something made abroad is a dollar they don't have to find ways to cut from their manufacturing costs to compete on price. For them it's the equivalent of running a race in which their competitors have to carry backpacks full of lead and they don't.

The politicians behind the idea love it because it would let them give their business cronies a huge tax cut — reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% — without reducing government spending.