Charles Rangel Unveils Massive Tax Overhaul

Truth be told, this tax proposal is clearly more of an opening salvo than anything else. It serves a number of purposes:

• It is a revenue neutral proposal which lowers taxes on over half the polulation, which is good politics.
• It will reinforce the meme that the current tax system is broken.
• It shows how many tax loopholes the fat cats get.
• It puts the Republicans on defense, so now they can't just mindlessly parrot "keep Bush's tax cuts".

This is probably the most important single bill we will see this session (Yes, I know about the war, and the warrentless wiretaps). To the degree that we increase the cost of obscene remuneration, we make it occur less frequently, and this reshapes our society.

The new gilded age we live in is largely an artifact of the social repercussions of the tax plans enacted by Reagan, Bush, and Bush.