In Washington, is it still possible to accomplish the impossible?

Sen. Max Baucus moves to reshape tax code

By Lori Montgomery, WashPost, Monday, April 8, 2:39 PM

Last month, Sen. Max Baucus summoned members of the Senate Finance Committee to a closed-door meeting to discuss the first full-scale rewrite of the 5,600-page U.S. tax code in more than 25 years.

The task would be gargantuan, and much of Washington has called it impossible in these contentious times. But after two years of watching President Obama and congressional leaders take on tax policy and other areas of the committee’s vast jurisdiction, the Montana Democrat who is the panel’s chairman was ready to reclaim his turf.

Senators arrived in a Finance Committee conference room to find crystal bowls filled with green and white M&Ms imprinted with pictures of President Ronald Reagan, as well as Democratic Rep. Dan Rostenkowski and Republican Sen. Bob Packwood, the committee chairmen who engineered the last tax overhaul, in 1986.

They found a detailed schedule of 10 more meetings, where committee staff members will present option papers for achieving such popular goals as simpler filing rules.

(More here.)