Flat Tax....or Flat Taxpayer?
Hosannas have poured in from all parts of the academic spectrum — left, right, and center — hailing the Treasury's draft plan as an approach to the ideal of the "flat tax." (Since the plan calls for three classes of income tax rates, it has been called a "flat tax with bumps.") This near-unanimity should not be surprising, because a flat tax appeals to the sort of academic who, regardless of ideology, likes to push people around like pawns on a chessboard.