WASHINGTON -- The fallout from the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of tea party groups is not yet complete. But already, a slate of senators are ...

(Repeats story with no changes to text) By Jason Lange and David Lawder WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - The chances of a ...

* Congressional tax writers unveil tax reform website * Senate panel eyes international tax options in meeting * New tax...

Tax reform has evolved into one of the emptier platitudes of U.S. politics. Politicians support "tax reform" in the same way that they support "a strong national defense," "fiscal responsibility," and "pro-growth economic policies." It's a brave statement in search of a challenge. Is anyone ever against tax reform?

It’s never been easy for House Republicans to raise the debt limit....

Repealing laws by hollowing them out -- failing to fund their enforcement or implementation -- works because the public doesn't know it's happening. Enactment of a law attracts attention; de-funding it doesn't.

This is the danger of revenue-neutral tax reform: having secured the achievable tax-expenditure savings and used them to fund other tax rate cuts, policymakers will have squandered the opportunity to raise the significant additional revenue needed for deficit reduction.

Immediately, some began to assert that Baucus' announcement meant the end of tax reform. Pardon me if I differ, but if anything, it probably helps the tax reform effort a bit by concentrating Baucus more on it.

* Louisiana, Nebraska stall; Kansas pushes ahead * Lobbyists gear up for fight in North Carolina By Nanette Byrnes ...

Far from being an impossible set of demands, the collective opinion poll version of the wisdom of the American people is, in fact, a smart set of solutions -- or at least it would be, if we had a government capable of following our wishes.

Our whole national argument about taxes -- we pay too much! They pay too little! -- is misplaced. At best, it's a proxy for the real argument we should be having. To use Holmes's terms, we argue endlessly about the price when we should be debating the civilization.

It has been more than 50 years since the United States updated its international tax system. In that half century, the world has changed dramatically. Is it any wonder then, why there is a growing frustration that the system doesn't work?

As the appetite for tax reform grows, perhaps voters should be wary of Democrats' lip service for progressivity when they seem willing and eager to drop the only truly progressive tax in the code.

If we are unable or unwilling to look deeply at ourselves, it is possible that we will be relegated to watch from the sidelines as democrats enact their principles across the country.

* Kansas Democrats, Republicans see a threat to jobs * Private-jet industry accounts for 1 in 10 jobs in region * Confli...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans emerged from their Thursday afternoon lunch with words that might be terrifying to some Democrats: The president may ...

What if I offered you -- them -- a solution that scratched both of those itches at once... a way to simultaneously both cut spending and raise revenues? That would be irresistible, right?

In their latest book, The Betrayal of the American Dream, Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele present a compelling case that America's middle class is in danger of extinction unless our government reverses course on major policies it has pursued over the last four decades.