Well, of course I believe the tax code is absurd...but taking away this ONE only would be crazy. If you change the tax code, change it all...not just pick one that would hurt more than it would help. And I apologize...my comment wasn't specifically aimed at your post, it was a general comment about some of the posts I was reading...I happened to hit reply to yours. Forgive me.
You are absolutely right Hildy! That would be the only fair way to do it.
To be practical, such a quantum change would have to be phased in to take into account all those investments that had been made based upon a tax code fudge factor. The phase in process must be applied, as you suggest, to the entire tax code.