Tax Help Blog

It is all well and good to be a wonk pontificating from the sideline on how to fix the tax code. It is yet another matter to realistically ask how to put the proposals into action given the current political actors. How can a liberal vote for a flattened tax code? How can a conservative stomach a citizen’s dividend or negative income tax? How can a progressive get behind what looks to be a tax cut for big corporations? How can a libertarian raise enough revenue to balance the budget? We will wrestle with these questions here, in the Tax Politics category. We will also expose the lies and half-truths used by politicians and their supporters to get their way, lies which poison public debate and pollute the tax code. All sides are guilty: liberal and conservative, libertarian and progressive. We recognize the overwhelming temptation to bend the truth to play the political game, and intend our criticism to be constructive. Deception makes for bad policy; truth for bad politics. Since we are not running for office, we can take on the burden of unpopularity to get to the truth. [...]