I agree that we need smaller governemtn, a wiser way of spending. As for taxes we should all pay our fair share and do away with all these specialized deductions and so on that allow the rich to skate
It's all well and good to say we should all pay our fair share but beyond tubthumping and rabble rousing that needs to be fleshed out a lot. What exactly is our "fair share", and why should anyone be expected to pay more than is legally required?
A lot of deductions are available to many people, it's just that most people can't afford to pay accountants to uncover them and any tax savings gained would be less than the accountancy fees to restructure one's affairs. Years ago when I set up a company I spoke to my accountant about a few tax avoidance schemes I'd come across. His verdict was that I could use them and they would save me some tax but would probably cost me more in fees than I'd save. If you work for someone else as an employee there's only so much you can do but as soon as you operate your own venture a few more doors open. And that's where the complexity comes in, and where the complexity must come in. If I'm running a mining operation I have to be able to offset the cost of expensive drilling rigs against the income from hauling stuff out of the ground, and as soon as I can offset an expense against my income an avenue for abuse is opened - at a stroke the new extension I want to build on the side of my house can be listed as an office space (and therefore a business expense). I can open a foreign subsidiary and travel to and from the foreign subsidiary can technically count as a business expense. And of course for those more brazen and who don't worry too much about being on the right side of the law, there's always the good old fashioned discount for cash payments when the cash never quite makes it to the accounting ledger. If you're an employee and every dime you make is reported to the IRS by your employer many such avenues are closed for you.
Even if we were to do away with deductions and simply introduce different tax rates for different types of business to cater for the fact some feature a lot of front-loaded expenses that just creates different avenues for abuse. If you can make a few minor tweaks to the nature of your business and reclassify yourself as a different type of business, and such reclassification will reduce your tax burden from 15% to 12%, we shouldn't be surprised if people do muddy the waters a little regarding exactly where their money comes from.
I think the crucial things we need in a tax system are that it has to be easy to comply with it, as difficult as possible to avoid, and the tax rates must be seen as fair. In many ways taxing income goes after the wrong target because it's so easy to hide income. If we tax consumption instead it's harder to avoid and also encourages people to save, which strengthens the economy going forward. Of course since governments of both sides have created an economy that relies so heavily on consumers borrowing and spending it's unlikely this will ever happen because it would cause some contraction and no politician wants to take the short term pain (for which they will be blamed) for a long term gain (that their successor will claim as their own achievement).
