Dave Camp, in my view, made tax reform inevitable in the sense that he showed you could broaden the base and lower the rates and simplify the code and be competitive around the world and make it more understandable.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The important thing about tax reform is you make the tax code less complicated, easier for people to understand.
We all want a simpler code, but tax reform is about much more. It is about ensuring that everyone pays their fair share. The tax code is also used to promote behavior that we as a nation support, such as home ownership or charitable contributions.
Corporate tax reform is nice in theory but tough in practice. It most likely requires lower tax rates and the closing of loopholes, which many companies are sure to fight. And whatever new, lower tax rate is determined, there will probably be another country willing to lower its rate further, creating a sad race to zero.
What we need is fundamental tax reform.
I think we can have some tax reform, but that doesn't mean tax increases. We ought to make the, the rates flatter. We ought to get rid of a bunch of those loopholes.
I want to reform the tax code so that it's simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 - the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.
Tax reform is taking the taxes off things that have been taxed in the past and putting taxes on things that haven't been taxed before.
Here's my thinking: Since tax reform only occurs once a generation, let's not tweak what we have and call it a day.
Simplification of the tax code would not only unlock dormant economic potential, but, in the process, it would blunt the preferred weapon of social engineers, who reward favored industries, punish success and distort economic incentives.
Tax reform is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.