I vote for a reasonable flat tax with very few deductions.
NO national sales tax!
OK. No problem. First, you have to define income.
Does it include capital gains? Interest income?
The current system has thousands of pages devoted to defining what is income and what is not.
All this before you get to deductions. What is deductible?
My point is that either the Fair Tax or Flat Tax will still be subject to all sorts of discussion, debate, challenges, hate, etc.
Both systems are superior to our current system, but both will be opposed by those who are embedded into our current system, including conservatives.
The bottom line is that no system will be perfect. No system will eliminate fraud, black markets, abuse, etc. No system will stop a future Congress from raising rates and playing shenanigans with deductions, definitions, etc.
However, by moving towards a simpler system that makes everyone pay something into the gov't, we move away from the current approach that is creating a majority of non-taxpayers who can vote themselves benefits.