Volker To Lead Tax-Code Overhaul

President Obama has tapped former Fed Chairman Paul Volker to head a commission charged with reviewing and making recommendations on “simplifying” the nation’s Byzantine tax-code.

Every President I can remember assembles one of these “blue ribbon” panels early in his administration, who then go away for six months and come back with a phonebook size report of policy recommendations, many of which wind up in the President’s circular file. I will be curious to see if this panel’s work follows this same path. The tax-code is in definite need of an overhaul, but I would have preferred it have been overseen by a President less likely to use taxation as a punitive weapon, or as a means to “level the playing field”.