Despite his declaration that the Senate “needs to get off their ass,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) may have opened up the possibility of negotiations on real tax reform. Of course, tax committee chairmen Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) are deep into negotiations to come up with workable ideas to reform our tax system. So Boehner’s comments today weren’t totally out of the blue. But Boehner may realize the key to a grand bargain is as much in revamping our tax system as it is in the Tea Party’s slash and burn politics. As much as the Republicans love to repeat “we have a spending problem,” the smart ones know deep down that we have a revenue problem too.

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