I kind of agree with you on many of those points.  Today, though, many of our lowest income folks don't pay any income taxes at all (only social security).  As a result, while I like the theory of a flat tax, I think the reality would be crushing to lower income folks, many of whom now have mortgages or other commitments that would be jeopardized immediately. 

That is to say that we may have broken the "money taking" system (or distorted it) so far that meaningful reform is much more complicated that it should be.