All Holes, No Cheese?

I don't understand the focus on corporate taxation in any event. Isn't it just a de facto tax on the consumer? Why would a politician concerned about a middle class squeeze want to tax Wal Mart to a greater extent?

The loopholes create a constituency for the tax. If you benefit from a $500,000 loophole then repealing the tax altogether will cost you $500,000 (or at least take away an advantage your competition may not have).

It's interesting that Bush campaigned against Gore on the grounds that Gore wanted to give out tax cuts in the form of loopholes rather than blanket rate cuts.

Taxes are evil, but targeted tax cuts are evil-er! Every targeted tax cut makes winners and losers. If you're going to have a tax system it should be the same for everyone, period. Are all politicians evil, or are they just very, very stupid?

Yes, but it doesn't matter (to the constituency) if the repeal would, or would not, be costly -- it is certain that the highly paid lobbyists who were recently successful in gaining any tax break would be against losing it.
There should be an alternate minimum corporate tax of 1% of gross revenue for all corps with more than a billion in revenue. The rate for smaller companies should be less (rev/ 1 bil.).