[natnat]

This a really classically difficult political problem of concentrated benefits with diffuse costs. The complication of the tax code comes from a zillion little exceptions added over the years, and every little exception has a beneficiary who doesn't want the existing system to change.

Imagine you're a congressperson trying to simplify the tax code. If you want to remove a single little exception, you're going to piss someone off a whole lot for not much benefit. If you want to do a big refactor and lower everyone's rate while cutting a ton of exemptions, you need to fend off zillions of loud, empowered interest groups.

As recently as 2017, congress tried to simplify the tax code with the TCJA. Paul Ryan and co tried very hard to make the tax code simpler while also cutting rates, and the process failed under the enormous pressure from interest groups. They ended up leaving pretty much every exception in place, and only cutting a few high-value tax benefits (like the SALT deduction) that benefited people from the other political party.

When there's no clear path to actually solving the problem, a hack that makes things better in the interim can be a really helpful solution.