Ann Althouse has a scathing critique of Wisconsin Democrat gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett's inability to give a straight answer to how he would handle Wisconsin's budgetary problem.
One line in particular, however, caught my eye:
... doesn't want to generally lower tax rates to stimulate business. He wants particular businesses to come to him and ask for an individual incentive and convince him somehow that their business is the right kind of business, to work through him. He sees himself as a power broker, dealing in privilege.
It is a common failing among politicians, especially but not exclusively Democrats. It is how, for example, the Democrats are destroying Illinois: Raise taxes on everybody and then dole out exceptions to a few select big companies with massive lobbying resources. See, e.g., Sears and Caterpillar--which got a combined $300 million in special tax breaks. But it's also how Obama and the Congress operates. See, e.g., the massive sums doled out to "green" firms like Solyndra.
One virtue of a flat tax with no exemptions or credits is that it would get politicians out of the privilege game. Which, of course, is precisely why it will never be adopted.
