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 . . . .