Bush's Tax Reform Committee

Dan gave me the link below and said that I should be the one to comment on it, since I'm the economist of the duo. And I'm not one to back down from a challenge.

Anyway, here's the article that Dan sent me:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/brucebartlett/bb20050112.shtml

I've also come across a post by Larry Kudlow on the same topic. Here's the address for that as well:

http://lkmp.blogspot.com/2005/01/bushs-choice.html

So the basic idea is that the President has put together a panel to explore different options for changing the tax structure. Basically, I'm inclined to agree with Bruce Bartlett on this one. I really don't see any kind of meaningful reform coming out of this commission. The fact of the matter is that if Pres. Bush has already told the members that they can't cut mortgage deductions or charitable contribution deductions, then there really isn't going to be anything groundbreaking that comes from the commission's findings.

What I predict will probably be the end result of this is something that comes relatively close to rubber-stamping the Bush tax cuts from his first term. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it will be much ado about nothing in the end.