Taxes Blah

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Fair Tax act 2007. It basically eliminates the IRS and all income taxes. It is then replaced by a 30% tax on all goods and services.

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Main problem with this is that either you bring in substantially less revenue than before (which has to be offset somehow), or you redistribute substantially from the poor to the rich. But, IIRC you can mostly overcome this if you go to two rates rather than just one, though three is better. But honestly, an actual single rate flat tax is only proposed seriously by people with an axe to grind because it isn't feasible on it's own (and they never talk about how they'll offset this basic problem).

But the problem with any of these sorts of proposals is that they involve getting rid of a ton of deductions which is very very very difficult to do politically (but is a good idea). Think of the tax advantages for cap gains on houses and the home mortgage deduction. What happens if you try to get rid of those? What are the odds of pushing that through Congress? (Hint, zero.)

Anybody who really cares about this stuff with respect to the politics of it should read "Showdown at Gucci Gulch" by Murray and Birnbaum about the 1986 tax reform. Great book and actually fairly easy to read if you are at all interested in this stuff.