The main purpose of a tax system is to provide revenues to support government functions. It is not to cut taxes. At the same time one wants to create a tax system that supports efficient and fair government and to distort as little as possible the behavior of individuals who are subject to tax. The role of both tax cuts and tax increases is to move toward some optimal level of taxation needed for this time and place. People now use the tax system for a wide variety of reasonsreally too many. [ NewsQuarterly]