Somebody's Confused

Today, Tax Analysts had this headline: English Prods GOP to Enter Tax Reform Debate, where it reported that:

House Ways and Means Committee member Phil English, R-Pa., has joined other members of Congress in calling on the Bush administration to build on the tax reform debate sparked by the final report issued by the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform.

"I think the time is now for us to move forward in the wake of that recommendation," English said February 7. The tax reform panel recommended an income tax-based option as well as a consumption-based plan, the Growth and Investment Tax option.

"Treasury needs to aggressively push forward with their inquiry and recommendations," he said.

On the other hand, TaxProf carries this report from the Associated Press, "Senate's top Democratic tax writer declares tax reform report 'dead.'" In the AP story, it is reported that:

"That thing's dead. That's dead, Mr. Secretary,” Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Treasury Secretary John Snow, who had been called before the Senate Finance Committee to discuss the president's budget.

"We don't accept that," Snow replied.

"Congress thinks it's dead," Baucus said. "That's going nowhere."

The AP story also reported that:

Former Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, who is vice chairman of the tax reform panel, said last week that he's disappointed the White House hasn't pressed lawmakers to get to work rewriting the tax laws.

The day after Bush outlined his priorities for the year in his State of the Union address, Breaux said the commission's report seemed to have disappeared.

"Must be in a closet somewhere, on a shelf somewhere," he said.

Me thinks that the tax reform panel's report is a Dead Parrot.

Of course, elsewhere on Tax Analysts' Taxwire, we find the following headline, "Bush Fiscal 2007 Budget Emphasizes Deficit Reduction." Apparently, Tax Analysts have begun recruiting reporters from the staff of the Onion.