CAPAF Applauds Tax Reform Push

December 7, 2006

The Center for American Progress welcomes efforts today to spark the debate on comprehensive tax reform. We know that real, meaningful tax reform will likely require a significant bipartisan effort. The diverse signatories to today’s “Cleanse the Code” statement, including CAP, represent a positive step in that direction.

The primary purpose of the tax code is to raise the revenue needed to fund current national priorities and to prepare for long-term goals. At CAP, we believe that America deserves a fair, simple, and pro-growth tax system that rewards work, creates opportunity for all, and allows the nation to meet vital national challenges.

The “Cleanse the Code” statement reiterates many of these themes, insisting that the tax code promote basic principles of simplicity, opportunity, and fiscal responsibility. At the Center we also believe that tax changes over the last several years have moved in the wrong direction—making the tax code less transparent, less fair, and more susceptible to exploitation by special interests.

The tax code now provides significant preferences for income derived from accumulated wealth, while at the same time placing a greater share of the tax responsibility on the work of the middle class and still leaving the nation with a significant budget deficit. A comprehensive tax reform package must reverse these trends and create a tax code that is simple, fair, and that raises adequate revenue to fund out national priorities.

A revised tax code should allow the middle class to get ahead and should create opportunity for Americans of all income levels. For more information, see the

“Cleanse the Code” Statement on the website of the National Taxpayers Union.

For more information on the Center’s own tax reform proposals, see:

• Principles and Proposals for Tax Reform
• A Fair and Simple Tax System for our Future
• Options for Tax Reform
• Creating a Fairer Tax Code

Contact our tax expert, John Irons, for additional information and comments.

To contact one of our experts please call/e-mail Sean Gibbons, Director of Media Strategy, at 202-682-1611 or sgibbons@americanprogress.org.

This article was originally published in Center for American Progress Action Fund.