This NY Times article reviews the growing consensus within the Bush Administration that something needs to be done with the federal government’s absurdly complex and special interest-riddled income tax system. There is no real economic analysis of the alternatives here, just a review of the political implications of such a movement. The most hopeful quote in the article comes from a Democrat:

“It strikes me that there’s consensus in the country, and hopefully in Washington, that the tax system is too complex, that it’s full of loopholes that are exploited by special interests and that we need to simplify them,” said Senator-elect Barack Obama of Illinois, a Democrat who won easy election to an open seat.
Mr. Obama, speaking on “This Week” on ABC, said, “If we can arrive at a tax simplification agenda that is not resulting in a shift toward a more regressive tax system, but is instead genuinely making it simpler for ordinary Americans to file their tax returns without a lot of paperwork and gobbledygook, then I think that’s something we could work together on.”

Amen.