There is an easy, conservative argument to make about taxes — and even about the 47 percent. Our code is a block of swiss cheese, with $1 in holes (tax expenditures) for every $2 in cheese (revenue). We can lower rates and raise revenue — for my conservative friends, I will say: “moderately!” — by exchanging lower tax rates for lower tax giveaways. Instead of this, some Republicans, having spent three decades demanding lower taxes every single election, are still professing utter shock and disgust that these tax cuts have helped the poor avoid income taxes … while simultaneously proposing one of the largest tax cuts ever for the rich.