The Republican tax outline released last week has been met with criticism from analysts and others who say that it disproportionately benefits the wealthy and would hurt some in the upper middle class. But there's a simple way to make the plan fairer and ensure that goal of closing loopholes is accomplished "without singling out one tax break, one area of the country or one set of wealthy people," the editorial board of The Washington Post argues: capping the total value of the deductions any taxpayer can claim.
From the editorial: "This idea is not new, and it is not partisan. Mitt Romney and President Trump each proposed some form of this plan in the 2012 and 2016 presidential races, respectively. President Barack Obama advanced his own version during his second term. Depending on how lawmakers crafted it, the policy could raise huge amounts of money almost exclusively from the wealthy — across the country."
Of course, such a limit would face much the same resistance from groups that have mobilized to preserve the value of large tax breaks that are or could be on the chopping block. "But," the editorial concludes, "it would be a fairer, more honest, more balanced policy than what the administration is peddling now."