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SMART KIDS PONDER PRESIDENT'S TAX WORDS

November 05, 2004

The smart kids also are paying attention to the President's tax policy thoughts.

Smart kid James Maule, a tax law professor at Villanova who has written perhaps 23.6% of the tax literature in our library, has some thoughts. They are well worth reading in full; here are some of the highlights:

   So does that mean the President would 
   not sign another special interest give
   away tax bill such as the American 
   Jobs Creation Act? Does he really 
   intend to oppose any more special 
   breaks for specific individuals or 
   entities or small groups of them? Is 
   he ready to stand up to legislators 
   on both sides of the aisle and oppose 
   their special interest group tax 
   legislation ritual? As I said yesterday,
   it's already messy and it will get 
   interesting.

   The President's statement also suggests 
   that simplification, as he sees it, 
   probably would not repeal the 
   charitable contribution deduction or 
   the home mortgage interest deduction. 
   This is probably his way of saying 
   that he understands the political 
   reality implicit in an attempt to 
   repeal a tax break that benefits a 
   wide cross-section of taxpayers rather
   than a small group. An interesting 
   question is "what else falls into that
   category?" 

    ...

   Will the Congress find a way to get 
   together and fix the problem? My 
   prediction is no, it will make it more
   complicated. When the day is done, 
   there will be more credits, more 
   anti-abuse rules, more definitions, 
   more limitations, and more phased-in, 
   phased-out provisions. The impact of 
   the looming financial problem 
   (deficits, Social Security, and 
   Medicare topping the list) will 
   contribute to the collapse of the 
   system.

Professor Maule, such Pollyana-ish optimisim doesn't become you!

Meanwhile, smart kid Paul Caron, a University of Cincinnati tax law professor and author of the TaxProf Blog, is keeping his predictions to himself, for now. He instead provides a roundup of big-media coverage of the President's tax reform agenda.

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