One of Bush's "tax reform advisors" is a member of THE CARLYLE GROUP.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.blackenterprise.com/yb/ybopen.asp?section=ybbf&story_id=78390689&ID=blackenterprise&p=0

Panel Has Tax Reforms In Mind
2005-08-14
Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE -- A presidential panel will offer several tax reform ideas next month, including the end to the unpopular alternative minimum tax, a panel member told a Santa Fe audience this week. But tax reform will die at the hands of special interests unless taxpayers demand change, said former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti in a speech to the New Mexico Tax Research Institute.

Any reform of the federal income tax system will require an end to some exemptions and tax breaks so taxes are collected at lower rates from more people and businesses, which will energize lobbyists to fight changes, Rossotti said. Public outrage helped change Internal Revenue Service behavior, beginning in 1997, when he was named commissioner, Rossotti said. "I think it's time the public rises up again and demand(s) a better tax system, not just a better IRS," he said. Rossotti said he could not describe in detail proposals the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform would provide President Bush in September.

But all panel members agreed at public hearings that the alternative minimum tax must go. The problem with ending the tax is that, without it, the U.S. Treasury will lose $1.3 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years, Rossotti said. "Tax simplification is really complicated," he said with a laugh. Rossotti said Bush put only two constraints on the panel's work: that nothing be done to discourage homeownership and charitable giving, and that proposals be revenue neutral.

The panel will offer a number of proposals, among them some form of flat tax and ideas for a consumption tax. Federal taxation is too complicated, costs too much to administer and is hard to enforce, Rossotti said. Rossotti was IRS commissioner from 1997 to 2002. He is now a senior adviser to The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C., private equity investment firm.

http://www.progressforamerica.com/1101-341.1101-011104G.html

Bush Appoints Panel to Study Tax-Code Change

01/10/2005

JOHN D. MCKINNON and ALEX KETO
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

President Bush laid the groundwork for overhauling the tax code, an effort that appears increasingly focused on simplifying rather than scrapping it.

Describing the overhaul as "an essential task," Mr. Bush tapped former Sens. Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, and John Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat, to be chairman and vice chairman of a bipartisan panel that will study the issue. The effort is aimed at making sure the tax code "encourages economic vitality and growth," Mr. Bush said. "It seems like to me the tax code today discourages economic vitality and growth when you spend billions of hours filling out the forms."

Asked if it were possible to accomplish both Bush administration goals of tax-code overhaul and a Social Security revamp at once, Mr. Breaux said it would be "a real challenge." Treasury Secretary John Snow said the administration is committed to putting tax overhaul on a "fast track." He said the tax panel is expected to report its recommendations by July 31 and the White House may be able to come up with new legislation as soon as the autumn. Still, it is widely expected that congressional debate will begin in earnest next year.

Other panelists include academic experts, business executives and former government officials. They are: William Frenzel, a former congressman and guest scholar at the Brookings Institution; Elizabeth Garrett, a law professor at the University of Southern California and counsel to former Democratic Sen. David Boren of Oklahoma; Edward Lazear, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at Stanford University's graduate school of business; former Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris, now a professor at the George Mason School of Law; James Poterba, associate economics department head at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti, a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group; and Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab.

[Waya]

1. Imagine my shock.....

n/t

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. Yeah...I hear you...but it's not the shock of discovery...

...it's the shock of how this is being sold to the American people.

[JDPriestly]

2. Not one labor representative.

Not one union member.

Not one person to represent the interests of ordinary working people. Nothing against these academics, but if big business is represented in Rossotti and Sonders, why not big labor?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. PLUS...the National Retail Federation sent the following to the panel:

http://www.nrf.com/content/default.asp?folder=press/release2005&file=NRST-comments.htm&bhfv=2&bhqs=1

Retailers File Comments Urging Rejection of Consumption Tax

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 13, 2005 - The National Retail Federation today announced that it has filed comments with the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform urging the panel to reject economically risky proposals to replace the nation's income tax system with a consumption tax or to add a new consumption tax on top of existing taxes.

"The United States should not experiment with a brand new tax system that will put our economic future at risk," NRF said. "It is better to engage in substantial reforms of the income tax that are designed to eliminate some of the major complications in the current Internal Revenue Code and stimulate economic growth without causing major economic dislocation."

NRF's remarks came in response to proposals for tax reform that were presented to the Advisory Panel during a series of hearings this spring. The panel asked for public comments on the proposals last month.

NRF on Friday submitted a detailed statement outlining the dangers of various consumption tax proposals. The statement addressed the National Retail Sales Tax proposed by Representative John Linder, R-Va., plans for a Value Added Tax similar to those used in Europe, and other consumption tax proposals.

The NRF statement cited a study commissioned by NRF in 2000 that found that a national sales tax would bring a three-year decline in the economy, a four-year decline in employment and an eight-year decline in consumer spending. The study showed that similar results could be expected if other types of consumption taxes were enacted to replace the current system.

NRF argued that consumption taxes are inherently regressive because low-income families spend virtually their entire incomes while wealthier families have larger percentages of unspent income that would go untaxed.

NRF particularly urged the Advisory Panel to reject proposals to maintain the current tax system while adding a VAT or other new tax that would be used to pay for programs such as Social Security or health care. Doing so would amount to a tax increase rather than tax reform and would provide lawmakers with "a money machine" to finance increases in government spending, NRF said.