Much of the first portion of the debate focussed on Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan. I’m not sold on 9-9-9 but one line of attack of this plan reminds us of why we need serious tax reform. You’ll find the critiques here:

Yes, industries whose lobbyists successfully won big carveouts from the income tax — they don’t want the income tax rate to go down. The lower that tax rates are, the less valuable your home mortgage interest deduction. It’s not just the home-builders and realtors, it’s also other industries — especially lobbyists — who benefit from tax-code complexity. They all oppose any broad tax reform.