My guess is the panel is playing with a couple of different ideas. One is some...reform of the current income tax system and the second is a value-added tax.

For every couple that wins, there's one that loses.

I don't think it changes the long-term timing of (tax reform). This was going to be next year's issue in any event, ... sitting out there for five or six months.

But that's not where the revenue comes from,

[The consumption tax idea is] at great odds with the political center of the country, ... How do we get to a system that better encourages savings and investment, without creating a system that can be characterized as benefiting the rich?

It's hard to see how they overcome some of the intrusions onto really pretty sacred territory.