L.A.S., I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding you, or the proposed legislation and it's affects. But I dont think Americans can't have it both ways with this tax (even though that's clearly the Ryan sales pitch).
While it will take some time for all of the effects to work their way through the system, this corporate tax scheme will have broad effects and cost consumers in the end. That's what all taxes do, regardless of how they are presented.
1: It is almost guaranteed the dollar will increase in value. This means exports will cost more in other currencies, therefore reducing demand for US goods and services abroad. It will make imports cheaper, but the tax will drive up the cost at the retail point. End result is that prices for consumers will be roughly the same or higher in real dollar terms for most low value products. Lower income Americans will be worse off while higher income Americans will be better off. This will further increase the class struggle and diminish the value of your society.
2: I do not see how anyone could make a logical argument that this does directly penalize products produced by other countries (often where existing trade deals exist). It may be cloaked in corporate income tax, but it amounts to a tariff on imports. That will almost surely result in retaliation by exporting countries, as well as WTO challenges and more. American influence and global relationships will further deteriorate.
3: While its clear that US politicians are shortsighted and fear implementing a sales tax on consumers, this doesn't mean bold proposals shouldn't be taken seriously. The Republicans control the entire government and have the power to make great changes, the problem is that they're too power hungry and divided to do things right. Republicans want lower taxes on the wealthy and corporations, a bigger military, lower spending, no budget deficits, no trade deficits, reduced social programs, a bigger middle class, and the ironies continue on and on. I'm sorry, but as a neighbour its almost laughable and I thought our government was poorly run.
In the 1980s, our government introduced a VAT and reduced tariffs and a Manufacturers Tax (basically a type of targetted corporate tax) and subsequently lost the next election. It was the best thing that could happen though as it hugely stabilized government revenues. Not surprisingly after campaigning against the tax aggressively in the election, the next government realized the benefits of VAT and kept it in place.
Citizens should be more critical of government spending and less critical about forms of taxation. With taxes, fairness and meeting spending requirements should be the main goals.
4: Individual self sufficiency and national self sufficiency are two very different things. Reduced trade volume has widespread impact. Just compare low trade volume countries and high trade volume countries (as a % of GDP) as an example. The correlation between trade volume and prosperity is substantial.
I understand this is largely an emotional instead of a logical tax proposal. All I'm saying is that this does not mean its smart policy.