[teal]

Narrew: If we could wash the slate clean and start the tax system all over again, then I would mostly agree with you. A *total* tax rate of X% flat across the board seems like a fair place to start a discussion, with perhaps a deduction (no tax on the first $X). Sadly, as you aknowledge, we can't start the tax game all over again from scratch (short of a violent revolution, which has its own horrible cost). So we are stuck with the tax system we have now. Given that we are stuck with the current tax system. Advocating a change from the progressive federal income tax seems like a bad idea to me. Since, as you acknowledge, none of the other taxes are going to change, the net effect of such advocacy (even with your admirable intentions) would be to make the total tax system regressive. I am very much interested in the practical side of things. Given that we prefer result X (a mostly flat total tax), what is the best way to accomplish that in the real world? I think that the answer has to be a slightly progressive federal income tax in order to balance out the regressive nature of all the other taxes. Also, I don't trust either party to be fiscally responsible if they hold all the power. Right now the Republicans hold the legislature, the executive, and, arguably, the judiciary as well. And they have shown that their idea of fiscal responsiblity is to *raise* spending and cut revenue. A Democratic legislature and a Democratic president would surely be bad as well in that they too would raise spending (on different things mind you) and would probably raise taxes to pay for it. Historically, a Democratic legislature and a Republican executive has also been quite bad with the compromise being balooning spending on both parties favorite projects. Which leaves us with a Democratic president and a republican legislature. Historically, this has been the most preferable option with something approaching a balanced budget and spending mostly under control. Given that both political parties are up to no good, and if given unchecked power they will abuse that power, the answer is to make sure that no one party ever gains controll. If it seems probable that Republicans will control the legislature, vote for a democratic president, and vice versa in the other case(it's easier to predict the legislature's composition in general given the power of incumbancy change happens slowly there). So rather than throw up our hands in defeat at the evil politicans we should try and use the built in checks and balances in the system to try and maximize the chances that the most reasonable thing will get done and to my mind that means making sure that the various factions have roughly equal political power.