The Republicans must have serious tax reform ideas. Those ideas should start with a much flatter tax with far fewer deductions. Those deductions should favor married couples with kids making it easier for one spouse to stay home through high deductions for a household with one earner. But likewise, the Republicans should consider in a two income household of joint filers, the second income earner should pay less tax on that income…

Beyond the income tax, the payroll tax affects more Americans. The Republicans have exempted more and more Americans from paying taxes each time they have cut taxes. But the payroll tax remains. The GOP should, while focusing on a simpler income tax, spend far more time addressing the burden of the payroll tax on the middle class…

We live in an age when major corporations can spend better money on lobbyists going to Washington to seek carve outs and loopholes from Congress than in innovation. Rich businesses and rich people get tax breaks and legal advantages under the patent and copyright system and elsewhere that keeps them from suffering at the hands of the creative destruction of upstart capitalists. Washington is propping up legacies instead of letting natural selection and evolution in business happen.

This hurts families because this hurts the small businesses where most families work. Small businesses do no have an opportunity to become big businesses because of Washington.