America needs higher, not lower, taxes

Washington

CAN we get real about "tax reform", the Republican promise to enact deep tax cuts that will spur economic growth? Probably not, but let's give it a try.

For starters, we can stop calling it "reform". That's a charged word, implying that the new tax system will be superior to the old. We don't know that for a fact; the new tax system might be worse. Better to call what we're doing the "tax debate" or "tax overhaul". (The point here is a general one. Advocates of policy changes routinely label their proposals "reform". This suggests improvement, which may be non-existent.)