Tax loopholes aren’t the problem, they are a symptom of a problem–Congress is the problem.
Tax loopholes don’t grow on trees, they are enacted by Congress. Some may serve a worthwhile purpose, others only serve to reward special interests.
It is our corrupt system rather than individual members of Congress which is at fault. As Tom Reed has noted, members of the House can only vote yes or no on bills and amendments that House leaders allow on the floor. If an important bill is considered, there may be no way to dump undesirable provisions other than to reject the entire bill.
Individual members didn’t create the system that leaves them dependent on legal bribery for funding, but they have to live with it. The Constitution makes each House responsible for it’s own rules, which makes needed reform difficult if not impossible. While we understandably applaud the First Amendment, when interpreted to allow unlimited spending by special interests, it stands in the way of honest government.
Reportedly business interests plan to spend immense sums lobbying Congress on tax reform. Can there be any doubt whose interests proposed reform will serve? Proponents of reform may talk of eliminating special interest loopholes, but this is empty talk–money talks. Even if loopholes were eliminated, unless Congress itself is reformed, they are certain to creep back in.
Former congressman Michael Grimm, out of prison after a tax fraud conviction, plans to run for Congress again. Will he win the GOP nomination? If elected, he will fit right in.
New NY 23rd 
We need a straight up flat tax system and eliminate all “loopholes”
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No, Tax loopholes ARE a problem. Congress is the problem. What is the root cause?
I suggest that it is the American Voter. Strangely indifferent to the future, unable to extrapolate from the past, willing to live in the present in as much apathy as a lotus eater.
These two articles, from quite different sources, about quite different events, illustrate the problem well.
Two articles:
The first:
We prefer catastrophe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2017/10/02/we-prefer-catastrophe/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0847da6eeade
This was the worst _______ in U.S. history. You can fill in the blank with almost anything now.The worst mass shooting, the worst hurricane damage, the worst governing. The carnage is Las Vegas is heartbreaking. The devastation in Puerto Rico is unimaginable. The abdication by your elected officials from doing anything to prevent the next, even-worse calamity is breathtaking.
And as citizens, our failure to insist on better is our failure to use our democracy.We know how we got here. We act as those each of these disasters was somehow unforeseeable. The trail of blood from a tsunami of oversize weapons leads directly to the Las Vegas tragedy. The hurricanes, the flooding, the droughts, the wildfires, the tornadoes are all there in the scientific work that has been done on climate change. The deliberate falsehoods that have been swamping our information and political systems have all been known, or knowable. And still we rest, assured. Somehow crazily assured that this is the best we can do.
And so, catastrophe. That is what we have chosen. We have decided that continuous mass carnage from firearms is a sane way to fight tyranny (at the same time, we cut slack for the a president who shows every inclination to authoritarianism). We continue to close our eyes to the deliberate disinformation campaign that has hamstrung rational efforts to check runaway climate change (at the same time, we cut slack for a president who is now trying to undo much of the modest progress we’ve made). We allow ourselves to be whipped into a frenzy of arguing with one another instead of working together to secure our common interests. And yes, there are people deliberately whipping.
We are currently treading a path leading toward a breakdown of our democracy. Perhaps we can even manage to score a new civil war that’s even worse than our first one.
The elites are apparently content to let all these things happen. Our elected officials are apparently content to let all these things happen. And we the people are apparently content to let all these things happen.
We have voted for catastrophe, and this vote will count.
The Second:
The ugly truth about America’s economy in just four words: THERE IS NO PLAN!
http://www.businessinsider.com/there-is-no-plan-for-americas-economy-2017-9
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The Linette Lopez article is a good one; thanks for suggesting it, Arthur.
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No bill can even be voted on, much less passed, without the approval of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Because of Senate and House rues (not the Constitution) these 2 people can hold up any bill they want. The US is a nation of over 330,000,000 people. McConnell was elected by 800,000 people in Kentucky. Ryan was elected by 230,000 in Wisconsin. Yet these two , together, hold all the legislative power to decide what gets considered by the representatives of the rest of the nation. Is this what the founding fathers envisioned? That the representative of 1,000,000 voters can hold up the desires of 330,000,000 citizens?
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Going into what the founding fathers imagined will put us in the weeds. Did they ever consider a nation of 330 million? How about 2 senators in sparsely populated Montana having the same voting weight as 2 senators in densely populated California? How about the static number of Congressional representatives resulting in 1 rep per one district the size on NY 23?
Mitch and Paul are elected to their positions by the votes of their caucus, who are themselves chosen by the voters. And the voters themselves represent a small subset of the population. Who don’t appear to care who or how they are governed.
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