Tax Day

It's tax day, and a good time to renew our repeated call for REAL tax reform in our country. As Newt Gingrich said in his column on the subject, "Nothing is certain except death and taxes, and physicians will tell you that death is much less complicated than the tax code".

More often than not, tax policy in our country is all about controlling behavior...as inpoliticians trying to control the behavior of the American public. This is the thing liberals don't usually want to admit (or just don't understand).

You can't predict the impact of taxes on a static basis because people react to taxes. They change their behavior. You can't say that if we increase taxes, we'll increase revenue...or that if we decrease tax rates (as conservatives want to do), we'll lose revenue. People react and change their behavior accordingly. The people who actually understand that work in the private sector and keepour economy moving...despite government.

Whether you're in favor of aone rate flat tax, a"flatter" tax, or a national sales tax, I think it's safe tosay all of the above would be better than what we have now. And we would all do well as conservative Republicans to push any and all of these ideas to help build some momentum for at least one of them.

Tax simplification works every time it's tried, and itimpacts our behavior. Meaning that it frees people to behave as they otherwise would if it weren't for a repressive tax structure, which inevitably results in more investment and a stronger economy, new jobs, more tax-payers and then, yes, more tax revenue. But on a larger tax base.