re: #66 RayFerd

I definitely don’t want lunacy fiscal conservative (no taxes, no spending, etc…) but I do want smart spending and smart taxes. And closing as many loopholes in the tax code as possible. Plus taking away all the ‘give aways’ to corporation that make enough money to begin with.

See, I don’t want much.

But you see, “smart” winds up being extremely subjective. Now the loopholes and giveaways… actually, several of those end up being subjective as well. Are they loopholes, or are they inducements that encourage desired behavior (or compensate for unintended abuses of other elements of law)?

caveat: I’m the pusher of the “simple” tax. All income (including investment, retirement, capital gains, gifts, inheritances, etc) counts. Deduct all actual expenditures as expenses, with an alternate expense of 200% of the federal poverty limit, to get net income. 50% of net income goes to taxes.