Lee A. Sheppard (Contributing Editor, Tax Analysts) has published Predictions for Senate Action Do Not Include Broad-Based Tax Reform, also available on the Tax Analysts web site as Doc 2006-3769, 2006 TNT 38-5. Here is the opening:

Tax reform is like Michelle Kwan, according to Senate Finance minority senior counsel Russ Sullivan, who spoke at the February 24 meeting in San Antonio of the USA branch of the International Fiscal Association. Analogizing to the American skater who failed to compete in Torino, Sullivan said that 2006 would be a year in which expectations from tax reform exceed results….

Sullivan’s boss, Senate Finance Committee ranking minority member Max Baucus, D-Mont., has already pronounced tax reform "dead," so Sullivan was more polite. Tax reform is not on the 2006 agenda, and broad-based reform will not occur until someone runs for president on it and wins, like Ronald Reagan did. Well, what about the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform? Sullivan commented that it was "not balanced" and did not engage with Congress. He said the Bush administration was "backpedaling" on some issues, and he wondered whether Treasury Secretary John Snow would even make recommendations this year.