opinions-political-simplicity

(I had asked a friend about simplfiying the tax code, they referred me to a group called "empower america" pushing for that:

Like many right-wing groups working for less bureaucracy, this one manages not \to focus sufficiently on the issue at hand to generate consensus from non-rightwingers like me. I am all for repealing the tax code and replacing it with something blindingly simple, but their single-rate proposal would significantly lessen the progressivity of the tax code and generate enormous savings for the rich. If they had only confined themselves to asking for a repeal of the tax code and a replacement with something simple, I would have signed on.

These sort of things are pretty damaging to the other side's views of right-wingers because a lot of people see these efforts as a ploy to help the rich (and I actually believe this to an extent; my read is that the management of Empower America is actually for a broad conservative agenda, and they are focusing on the complexity of the tax code in this mailing opportunisticaly).

In addition, their letter also says that their people speak in favor of a missle defence system, further preventing me from wanting to pay for them.

I would like to find some organizations whose only focus is simplicity in government, who try to put forward proposals which would vastly simplify government while minimizing the side effects on more contentious issues (like, in this case, wealth redistribution and military policy). Such proposals could win bipartisian support from voters.

[bayle: note: i later found out that some people think that a flat-rate tax code would be more progessive than our current code! so maybe my dislike for the flat-tax proposal is misguided. but i'd still like a "simplicity in government" organization which doesn't otherwise support conservative issues]

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