SOLUM ON BARNETT ON LUND ON SCALIA.

ARGUING FOR TAX REFORM:

“The largest source of compliance burdens for taxpayers, and the IRS, is the overwhelming complexity of the tax code,” Olson writes. “The only meaningful way to reduce these burdens is to simplify the tax code enormously.”

It’s common sense and worth a read, but a few figures stand out:

* Americans spend 7.6 billion hours annually trying to figure out their federal taxes. Working eight-hour days, five days a week, 50 weeks a year, that’s the equivalent of 3.8 million full-time workers.
* At the average hourly wage of $27.54, that tax-preparation time amounts to $193 billion, or 14 percent of aggregate income tax receipts.
* A staggering 60 percent of individual taxpayers are so bewildered by the tax code that they hire outside preparers. An additional 22 percent buy computer software.

The bottom line: Paring the tax code’s 3.7 million words to something comprehensible would effectively return money to the taxpayer at no “cost” to the government. Individual taxpayers could do something else with their time, the small-business owner could concentrate on creating income, and the IRS (and, consequently, the taxpayer again) could spend less money on compliance and enforcement. Heck, taken all together, tax receipts from a simplified tax system might actually rise.

But if Obama and Congress still aren’t convinced after reading Olson’s report, they should consider the sorry case of one of their own: Even Rep. Charlie Rangel, chairman of the nation’s top tax-writing committee, can’t understand the basics of the tax code.

Well, I’m convinced.

MICKEY KAUS: “Facing an economic slowdown, possible deflation, declining readership and competition that gives away its product for free, the Los Angeles Times raises newsstand prices 50%.” Well, that’s thinking outside the box!

A STIMULUS PROPOSAL:

If the Government wants to stimulate the economy, then why not just declare a payroll tax holiday immediately?

It’s fast to turn on, fast to turn off once CPI ticks up, and you don’t have all these “is it really shovel ready” questions you have with fiscal stimulus.

People will save some of the tax cuts, but people need to pay down debt too. That’s why you keep it going until there is enough spending that it starts to show up in CPI.

And a critique:

The main problem with a payroll tax holiday is that it minimizes Congressional opportunities for graft and larding out goodies to their contributors. That makes it both wise and politically unfeasible, at least until we get a better class of congresscritter.

Uh oh. We’re screwed.

CHANGE: Obama to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

DON’T JUST SIT THERE: Go vote for Michael Totten.

VIDEO: Joe the Plumber the Reporter in Israel.

ROLAND BURRIS MONEY QUESTIONS: The soap opera continues.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IN MASSACHUSETTS: A “disaster.”

A LOOK AT the new 2010 Toyota Prius.

NICK GILLESPIE: Remember Obama’s Pledge Not to Let Earmarks Get Into His Massive Stimulus Package?

FROM DAVID BERNSTEIN: Praise for The New York Times.

WELCOMING BONO TO THE PUNDITOCRACY with a big Bronx cheer.

ALTERNATIVE STIMULUS PROPOSALS: “Republicans are taking President-elect Obama at his word that he wants bipartisan input for the stimulus package.”

OH, GOODY: “Last week, Congress’s oversight panel for the TARP funds confirmed in a report that the Treasury Department essentially has no idea what banks have done with the astronomical sums they’ve been handed.”

ANDREW BREITBART: Is He Really That Crazy? Why Would Mickey Rourke Defend George W. Bush? “Hollywood needs more Mickey Rourkes. It’s just more interesting.”

CHANGE: Obama selects former Harvard classmate to head FCC. “U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has selected Julius Genachowski, a technology executive and former classmate from Harvard Law School, to lead the Federal Communications Commission, a Democratic source said on Monday. Genachowski served as chief counsel for former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, the chairman under former President Bill Clinton, and held various positions at IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI.O), as well as other technology posts. Genachowski, who has been advising Obama, had been considered the front-runner for the job.”

CALIFORNIA UPDATE: “The number of people leaving California for another state outstripped the number moving in from another state during the year ending on July 1, 2008. California lost a net total of 144,000 people during that period — more than any other state, according to census estimates. That is about equal to the population of Syracuse, N.Y. . . . With state government facing a $41.6 billion budget hole over 18 months, residents are bracing for higher taxes, cuts in education and postponed tax rebates. A multibillion-dollar plan to remake downtown Los Angeles has stalled, and office vacancy rates there and in San Diego and San Jose surpass the 10.2 percent national average.” It’s like the whole high-tax, high-regulation thing isn’t working for them.

WHEN DEMOCRACIES DECIVILIZE.

EUGENE VOLOKH on how mapping political contributions may discourage donations. If this was done to the other side, it would be McCarthyism . . . .

MICHAEL VS. MICHAEL: Michael Yon may sue Michael Moore.

TOM MAGUIRE: Obama Continues The ‘Torture’ Backpedaling. On the other hand there’s this: “Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama say one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.” Not that these are entirely inconsistent . . . .

JON ENTINE: Think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were a politicized financial disaster? Just wait until pension funds implode.

Funds worth trillions of dollars start to plummet in value. Political pressure to be “socially responsible” distorts the market decisions of government-related enterprises, leading to risky investments. Investors who once considered their retirements safely protectedwake up to a sinking feeling of uncertainty and gloom.

Sound like the great mortgage-fueled financial crisis of 2008? Sure. But it also describes a calamity likely to hit as soon as 2009. State, local, and private pension plans covering millions of government employees and union workers with “defined benefit” accounts are teetering on the brink of implosion, victims of both a sinking stock market and investment strategies influenced by political considerations. . . . Traditionally, public investments and union-based corporate pension funds were managed according to strict fiduciary principles designed to protect workers and taxpayers. For the most part they invested in safe government securities, such as bonds or U.S. Treasury bills. Professional managers oversaw the funds with little political interference.

But during the last 30 years, state pension funds began playing the market, putting their money into riskier and riskier securities—first stocks, corporate bonds, and foreign investments, then real estate, private equity firms, and hedge funds. Concurrently, baby boomers whose politics were forged in the 1960s and ’70s began using those pension funds to advance their social visions. Investments designed for the long-term welfare of retirees began to evolve into a political hammer. Some good occasionally came from the effort, as when companies were pushed to become more accountable in their practices. But advocacy groups often used their clout to direct money into pet social projects with dubious fiduciary prospects. Sometimes the money went to the very companies and financial instruments that, in the wake of the market meltdown, are now widely derided.

Read the whole thing, which, sadly, won’t come as a big surprise to InstaPundit readers.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Thank you for another great article. I believe (as I suspect you do) the pending pension crisis will be worse for the country than subprime loans.

In fact, because of this, I have begun making changes to how my family leads our lives. Thanks to my hard work, we find ourselves in the top 5% of income earners. I expect our taxes to skyrocket when the day of reckoning arrives for public pensions (we both know payouts will not be cut). So, we have decided to stay in our house, which will be paid off when I hit 42, and we are socking away as much cash as we can. I have also downgraded the type of new car I am going to buy this year. I expect my cash flow to be greatly reduced by much higher taxes as we move into 2010 and beyond, and I want us to be ready. Atlas shrugged?

I have also decided to run for city council where we live. The Army of Davids needs to get off the sidelines and get into the game. Our elites have made such a mess it is time for all of them to go.

Any other folks out there thinking the same way?

COMING SOON: “Bacon: A Love Story.” Shockingly, not by John Scalzi.

WELL, DUH: “San Francisco’s surveillance cameras in high-crime areas do not prevent violent crime, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California.” Related thoughts here.