Bad news from GWB's tax reform panel

Apparently, the panel of geniuses put together by our esteemed Republican president has decided not to make any case for, not even suggest the possibility of or even say, "it would be nice to do this, if someone could only figure out a way to make it work", any major reform of the tax code. No flat tax, no FairTax, no VAT, no national sales tax replacing the vile progressive income tax, nothing. Instead, they found all kinds of ways to squeeze just a little more revenue juice from the already-oversqueezed American taxpayer by reducing deductions for home mortgage interest and premiums for employer-financed health insurance.

Translation: we're so hooked on the revenue from the even more vile AMT that we can't get rid of it without raising taxes on everyone who doesn't already fall under its boot heel.

Here's an idea - how about reducing spending by something more than a trifle? First, DeLay and Hastert go on and on about how the decade-long GOP majority has cut spending pretty successfully (HA!) and that there's little to no fat left to trim (they did both read and sign the transportation bill, didn't they?), and now this? This is what we've brought all these Republicans to Washington for? To hear them say there's no more money to save and that they're going to take even more from us 'cause they can't figure out how to make the tax system simpler? Sheesh.