Story highlights Rand Paul: We can be bold yet simple on tax reform

He says we can cut taxes and promote growth without picking winners and losers

Rand Paul is a US senator from Kentucky. He serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) As Congress returns next week, attention will turn to matters of budget, spending and taxes. The tax reform package that legislators will take up will have major implications for years to come, and we should get it right.

Unlike health care, tax reform can be simple, but I'm afraid those who are in charge will make it unnecessarily complicated, especially when coupled with an alarming timidity that could render the reform's impact nearly meaningless.

Sen. Rand Paul

There is much talk from the wonks in Washington about the need to make tax cuts "revenue neutral," or offset elsewhere in the tax code. Let me tell you what that really means, and why it is a terrible idea, especially here in the "Swamp."

Revenue neutral ultimately means that someone pays more for someone else to pay less. It means tax "reform" without real tax cuts.

Let me ask you a serious question. If someone has to pay more for someone else to pay less -- which category do you think you and other Americans might fall into? I fear that tax reform that mandates revenue neutrality will result in those with the best lobbyists, lawyers and accountants being the winners, while most everyone else either gets nothing or largely loses out.

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