if the Slovaks can, then why can't we?

Looks like Romania is the latest country to adopt a Flat Tax....

...A costly bid for popularity—or the new orthodoxy? Once upon a time, the "flat tax" was just a pet cause of free-market ideologues, spurned by practical politicians. No longer. Romania joins a lengthening list of converts among the post-Communist states of Eastern Europe. Estonia began the trend back in 1994, to be followed by Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia and Serbia. Last year Slovakia fixed a universal rate of 19 percent. Opposition parties are pressing for similar deals in Poland and the Czech Republic. Even fiscally orthodox Old Europe is taking note. "There is discussion all over the EU," says Katinka Barysch, of the Centre for European Reform in London. "People are asking, if the Slovaks can have such a beautiful and simple system then why can't we?"...

It is surely no accident that the flat tax is so popular in countries that have suffered under socialism. They understand all too well that governments strive to control their economies because that's the most effective way to control people. The same thing happens here, but because it is milder and more subtle many people remain hoodwinked by promises that regulation is intended to help them (and punish the bad people who have gotten rich [unless they are good rich people who give to the Democrat Party]).

Our politicians will not be enthusiastic about a flat tax, because they use the Tax Code to mete out punishments and rewards...