Tax Reform

1 . Tax reform has bipartisan support. The night he was reelected, President Obama said " reforming our tax code " was among his second-term priorities. A few days later, House Speaker John Boehner said tax reform could help solve the national debt . Don't be fooled. Republicans and Democrats mean different things when they talk about tax reform. Republicans are much more interested in lowering rates than in closing loopholes. During his presidential campaign, Mitt Romney said he would slash individual income tax rates by...

One way President Obama can begin to put the IRS scandal behind him is by proposing comprehensive tax reform. Beyond the usual Washington theatrics, the real problem is that the U.S. tax code is unbelievably complicated, clocking in around 74,000 pages, with all rulings, regulations and other material. The greater the complexity, the broader bureaucrats' powers to determine the status of an individual, corporation or association. A radically simplified tax code, even one that raised more revenue, would be good politics and good economics.

The story behind the story is that "tax reform," as we know it, is dying. During the 1980s, no major piece of legislation better symbolized bipartisan consensus than the Tax Reform Act of 1986 , which was regarded by both liberal and conservative experts as the best tax law since World War II. The basic idea was simple: Reduce tax rates and recover lost revenue by ending (or limiting) tax breaks. The struggle between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner over the "fiscal cliff" indicates that this beneficial consensus has collapsed.

While I admire advocacy for untangling the country's tax code, The Post's mash-up of tax reform, tax revenue and the carbon tax is problematic [" Tax reform on the table ," editorial, May 8]. The Post rightly acknowledged that, under a carbon tax, "polluters pay for their own pollution" and emissions fall, but it forgot the intent: creating a less carbon-intense economy. Overreliance on gasoline taxes and increased automobile fuel efficiency have put a pothole in state transportation budgets.

In November 2007, Americans had 146.6 million jobs; now, we have just 143 million. Then, 66 percent of working-age Americans had a job or were looking for one; as of September, that figure was 63.6 percent, the second-lowest result in three decades. Recent Federal Reserve statistics highlighted a core problem hindering our economy: Liquid assets held by U.S. corporations total $1.73 trillion, up from around $1 trillion a decade ago. That sum and the vast liquid assets held by non-corporate businesses show that, instead of...

Earlier this year, as House Republicans began strategizing for the November elections, conservatives badgered their leaders to unveil a detailed plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code. The GOP has vowed to lop 10 points off the top tax rate, and many House freshmen were eager to make that promise a centerpiece of their first reelection campaigns. It fell to Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) to convince them that tax reform, like so many things in Washington, is more complicated than it might seem.

The Taxpayer Protection Pledge is a one-sentence written commitment by members of the House and Senate to their constituents that they will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase total taxes. No net tax increase. Tax reform — reducing tax credits, deductions and/or exemptions in return for reducing marginal tax rates so that the change is not a net tax hike — is not only consistent with the pledge but was the original and continuing purpose of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

It is no accident that much of the record spending in this year's election, now funding an avalanche of last-minute ads across the country, comes from groups with a strong interest in shaping federal tax rules. Tax reform is likely to be at the top of the agenda for the next Congre ss . And the topic ranks as the No. 1 concern of the business groups that have dominated independent spending in this election. "Fear of Obama tax hikes is driving things," said Grover...

If you know one thing about Herman Cain , it's probably that he used to be the chief executive of Godfather's Pizza. If you know two things about him, you are likely to have heard of something called "9-9-9. " That is the Republican businessman's shorthand for his tax reform plan. The idea has become the centerpiece of his upstart campaign for president, boosted recently with surprisingly strong showings in opinion polls and a closely watched GOP straw poll in Florida.

It's hard enough wading through the tax code in preparing your personal tax returns. But parsing the blizzard of proposals for tax hikes, tax cuts and tax reform offered by President Obama, lawmakers and GOP presidential candidates can be overwhelming. It's not just that taxes and their implications for the economy are complicated. It's that politicians often shade facts about the U.S. tax system to their advantage, using contradictions, half-truths or downright distortions to make their case.

After four years of trillion-dollar deficits, the red ink is receding rapidly in Washington, easing pressure on policymakers but shattering hopes for a summertime budget deal. Federal tax revenue is up and spending is down thanks to an improving economy, tax increases that took effect in January and the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester . The sunnier outlook means that President Obama will be able to pay the nation's bills for months without seeking additional borrowing authority from Congress — probably...

Terry McAuliffe offered a plan to reduce and reform a handful of local taxes Friday, seeking to position himself as the Virginia gubernatorial candidate best-equipped to stimulate job growth in the commonwealth. McAuliffe's (D) opponent, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), a longtime proponent of smaller government and lower taxes, is expected to unveil a broader plan to reshape Virginia's tax system next week. McAuliffe's proposal calls for ending or cutting the Business,...

Since Franklin Roosevelt busted the curve, presidents have generally tried to avoid the 100-day measure of their effectiveness. But as President Obama's second term reaches this milestone, his legislative yield is particularly paltry. Obama overplayed his hand on sequestration, with dire warnings that were roundly ignored. Then he poured his limited reserves of passion into a modest gun control measure that failed. Immigration reform remains a possibility only because of Obama's irrelevance to the...

With another fight over the national debt brewing this summer, congressional Republicans are de-emphasizing their demand for politically painful cuts to retirement programs and focusing on a more popular prize: a thorough rewrite of the U.S. tax code. Reining in spending on Social Security and Medicare remains an important policy goal for the GOP. But House leaders launched a series of meetings last week aimed at convincing rank-and-file lawmakers that tax reform is both wise policy and...

Imagine being a brain surgeon given the job of fixing a tumor without being able to see its true size or shape. That wouldn't work too well, would it? It would be even worse if you thought you knew the tumor's size and shape but you had it wrong. Sure, that sounds ridiculous. But that's the situation we find ourselves in when it comes to fixing the federal corporate income tax, which has a 35 percent stated rate but more holes than Swiss cheese. The only people who know for sure how much a...

Regarding Charles Krauthammer's March 22 op-ed column, " The 50 percent solution ": I would not call increased revenue "fattening the Treasury. " Most of the tax revenue coming in to the federal government goes right back into the economy. When people talk about revenue-neutral tax reform, they really mean reform that does not reduce the deficit. President Ronald Reagan may have achieved revenue-neutrality with the 1986 tax reform, but what he got was a tripling of the national debt during his eight years in office, thanks to the...

With another fight over the national debt brewing this summer, congressional Republicans are de-emphasizing their demand for politically painful cuts to retirement programs and focusing on a more popular prize: a thorough rewrite of the U.S. tax code. Reining in spending on Social Security and Medicare remains an important policy goal for the GOP. But House leaders launched a series of meetings last week aimed at convincing rank-and-file lawmakers that tax reform is both wise policy and good politics...

The proposition that entitlement curbs are the key to maintaining national solvency is widely accepted, though not by many congressional Democrats . President Obama, however, has endorsed it on various occasions. And he could make it happen. If he wants. I remain skeptical that he does. But national solvency is important enough to test this proposition at least once more. The obstacle is Obama's current position that entitlement cuts must be "balanced" with new revenue from closing loopholes.

The tax plan embedded in the House Republican budget would cut taxes by $5.7 trillion over the next decade, with the benefits flowing disproportionately to very wealthy households, according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Taxpayers earning more than $1 million a year would benefit the most from the GOP tax plan, the analysis shows, reaping an average $400,000 tax break that would send their after-tax income soaring by nearly 20 percent. ...