What happened to the Tax Reform report?

November 4, 2005 5:55 PM

Did the President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform radically change their plans at the last minute? I read through the first few chapters of their report (released November 1), and then googled to try to find some independent analysis. Several of the top links are angry articles from around October 14, talking about how the panel is going to recommend nothing more than a couple of minor tweaks to programs to pay for repealing the AMT, and won't "seek a wholesale reform of our tax code." But the report that came out on November 1 seems to recommend drastic changes, essentially throwing out most of the existing tax code and rewriting it from scratch. (Not that that's a bad thing.) What happened between October 14 and November 1?
posted by designbot to Law & Government (5 answers total)

We have to pay for tax cuts to the rich, a war in Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina. Where else is the money coming from but real taxpayers who work hard, save money, and maintain the country's stability by buying a home?
posted by Rothko at 6:23 PM on November 4, 2005

I think this is a matter of your perspective. The "angry articles" you link to were looking for extremely radical proposals, like a flat tax or a national sales tax + VAT. So while the recommendations seem radical to you, they are not that radical to the true believers on the far right.

Anyway, it's most likely DOA anyway, based on the current political landscape.
posted by pitchblende at 7:21 PM on November 4, 2005

Simple possible answer: maybe what was leaked wasn't accurate.
posted by smackfu at 9:16 PM on November 4, 2005

What the Oct. 14 articles indicate was that there was some last-minute wrangling about the content of the report -- its ideological content. The right-wing sites were warning the members of the panel that they needed to pay attention to Cato/Heritage talking points when making reform proposals.

Now that the report is out, Democrats aren't as pleased. Maybe the pushback worked.
posted by dhartung at 9:33 PM on November 4, 2005

Here's a good source.
posted by terrapin at 10:18 AM on November 5, 2005