Tax Reform?

Simplifying the tax code won't be easy.  This chart helps explain why:

 About half of all tax expenditures go to the top quintile (top 20 percent of income earners). The bottom 80 percent of earners divide the other half. And within that richest quintile, the top one percent receive 15 percent of all tax expenditures (this distribution of tax breaks roughly parallels the distribution of income).

 My big non-farm tax breaks are the state and local tax exemptions, the charitable deduction and the capital gains/dividend preference.  The only one of those Republicans will want to go after is the state and local tax exemption, since they hate state and local taxes.  I definitely think the dividend preference ought to go entirely, while capital gains taxes ought to go back to the Reagan era 28% level.  Why should somebody working for a living pay more taxes on their income than somebody who's just sitting on stock investments?  The charitable deduction probably ought to be overhauled, but nobody will ever come to agreement on that.