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Kudos to Mitt Romney for suggesting a concrete and sensible income-tax reform: capping deductions at $17,000.

Now, it's not clear whether he means tax liability or taxable income. As Dylan Matthews explains, that's the difference between a highly progressive (in the technical sense, not the euphemism-for-liberal sense) proposal and one that would affect a lot of middle-class households.

The question isn't who gives more and who receives more at a given moment. It's whether the use of tax dollars serves the common good.