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So you go to the doctor because your head aches. The doctor tells you you have a headache.

August 30, 2010

The "Volker Panel" has issued it's report on tax reform options. After reading this from TaxVox, I'm having no difficulty containing my enthusiasm:

While there is almost nothing in this paper that has not been hashed over by prior studies, including the Bush commission, the PERAB report does a nice job describing what is wrong with the current tax code. And it includes some valuable hints, at least, about possible future policy choices. But, in the end, it does little to advance a debate the nation desperately needs to have.

Of course, it's not as though the problems with our horrendous and baroque tax code have been a national secret up until now. It doesn't hurt to count its non-blessings, but it doesn't move the ball much. But that may not matter, if the real purposes of the panel was to distract some inconvenient economists.