In other words it wasn't nearly as draconian as conservatives claimed; thank you for illustrating my sarcastic point so well. It WAS too complex, and, for the record, I'm not saying we should eliminate ALL write offs and adopt a flat tax, just that we still have too many write offs overcomplicating the code and reducing revenue. I DO remember the option of saving up and itemizing receipts even if some of my family denies it ever happened, and I think it was a good policy; the alternative still feels like double taxation to me even if it's technically nt.

That consumer spending is why I'd prefer to shift more of the tax burden to people not forced to spend every dime of earnings supporting themselves, with no ability to stash away the savings economists and financial advisers sagely encourage them to prepare for retirement. It's also why I'd direct any economic stimulus there rather than trying and failing yet again to dump money into the top and praying it trickles down because people who didn't get rich spending money in a recession decide to alter that policy.

We DON'T have a comparable living standard to Europe though, and haven't for some time; that's what all the arguments about healthcare reform are about, remember? Healthcare, for a variety of reasons, is consuming a rapidly rising share of our GDP, unlike in Europe. According to PBS' Now program 50% of people who declared bankruptcy in 2007 did so despite having good jobs AND health insurance, because the cost of catastrophic illness broke them. That doesn't happen in Europe, and it's not good for Americas living standard nor the country as a whole.

Anyway and once again, wealthy investors aren't going to bolt the States for China because they suddenly have to pay an extra 5% or 10% of their earnings to the government. They certainly aren't going to go to places like Canada or Europe where they'll pay even more. No, they'll stay right where they are, raise hell about taxes they try to avoid--and pay them.

The Swiss only recently started reporting info on numbered accounts to the IRS, and when they did there was a sizable panic among millionaires who had to race to get in on an amnesty before the feds came after them for tax fraud. The long term ramifications of that have yet to be seen; it may just mean more money is stashed away in the Bahamas, but since you seem to be saying that's no longer an option (news to me) maybe they'll go to Monaco instead. It highlights the problem with arguing the wealthy will leave America if their tax rates increase: Many of the countries with lower OFFICIAL taxes have them in part because of a tendency to "collect revenue" at gunpoint, and even in places where that's not true now it could well become true after the next weekly revolution.

Yes, we all have one, and all of them stink except mine.