Hey EV, curious if you've read this article.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...x-reform-that-doesn-t-even-work-on-paper.html
"In 2015, and assuming no changes in policy, the Tax Policy Center estimates that the tax code will contain $1.5 trillion in deductions, exclusions, loopholes, and so on. But a third of these will be tax preferences for saving and investing, which Republicans have said they oppose changing. An additional 10 percent is made up of extremely progressive policies that help children, the poor and the elderly, and Democrats will fight like hell to retain these measures. And a further 17 percent comes from a category of miscellanea, much of which would be very difficult to change, like the exclusion of imputed rent on owner-occupied housing.
The closer you look at
base-broadening, rate-lowering tax reform, the less it looks like an exception to the normal rules of Washington policy making and the more it looks like it will inevitably fall victim to them. It is clean and elegant when imagined by technocrats who dont worry about the politics, clear and simple when endorsed by politicians who omit the crucial details, and likely to become polarizing and disappointing if it is actually taken up by Congress.
Olympians Break
Indeed, over the last week weve seen how superficial the commitment to a fairer, flatter tax code really is: Senator Marco Rubio has proposed, and Obama has endorsed, a new tax break so Olympians wont pay any taxes on their prize money.
In their conclusion, the studys authors note that there isnt even the barest hint of an agreement between the two parties as to an acceptable target for revenue, a necessary first step for tax reform. So we are nowhere near the point where we can start working out the details of how to broaden the base and how far to lower the rates. But if we ever get there, the authors write that those details might be the most difficult hurdle of all.
They are almost certainly correct about that. Which is why its so worrisome that so many in Washington seem to think it will be easy."