Fascinating story about Obama's relationship with House Democratic leadership.
It's inside baseball for most of America, but it may be one of the most important pieces of news in the past few weeks.
Update: Jim Cooper misunderstood Rahmbo. Making this not the most important story of the week....
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Thoughts on a Taxastrophe
Our tax system is enormously complicated. I'm not sure Geithner's woes were brought on by this complexity, though I'm inclined to think Daschle's were...
All of this makes for great political spectacle.
It makes me think that when you design an intensely complex system to reward some behaviors and discourage others, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that errors are common.
It also suggests that a simplified tax code would do a lot to promote fairness, ease an enormous amount of frustration felt by individuals all across this country, save money that would otherwise be spent on lawyers, increase the overall compliance rates, and generally make the world a better place.
Except, what would our politicians and lobbyists do? (Not to mention the lawyers...)
Seriously, though, the tax code is the place where government tries to coax individuals and businesses into making certain decisions. It's much easier politically to give a business or a group of individuals a tax break than it is to actually give them direct assistance. And once a tax break gets in the system, it's tough to ferret out.
All of this makes for great political spectacle.
It makes me think that when you design an intensely complex system to reward some behaviors and discourage others, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that errors are common.
It also suggests that a simplified tax code would do a lot to promote fairness, ease an enormous amount of frustration felt by individuals all across this country, save money that would otherwise be spent on lawyers, increase the overall compliance rates, and generally make the world a better place.
Except, what would our politicians and lobbyists do? (Not to mention the lawyers...)
Seriously, though, the tax code is the place where government tries to coax individuals and businesses into making certain decisions. It's much easier politically to give a business or a group of individuals a tax break than it is to actually give them direct assistance. And once a tax break gets in the system, it's tough to ferret out.
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