Fixing the tax sieve

摘要

When politicians show up at a manufacturer's research centre and a family bakery, they are usually chasing votes. Max Baucus and Dave Camp were on a different sort of campaign when they hit the Minneapolis area on July 8th. Mr Baucus, a Democratic senator, and Mr Camp, a Republican congressman, are touring the nation to drum up support for tax reform. Policy wonks have long dreamed of simplifying America's tax code. Hopes soared after last year's election, when Ba-rack Obama and John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, both suggested that tax reform could be part of a grand bargain that raised tax revenue, curbed spending and cut the deficit. Alas, negotiations between the two men foundered.