two prominent economists—Jason Furman of Harvard University and Doug Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum—both trashed the idea of an overlapping second tax system for businesses. Furman is a Democrat who was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Holtz-Eakin is a Republican who was director of the Congressional Budget Office and chief economic adviser to John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign. Biden’s alternative business tax would be a new 15% tax on “book income” for companies with more than $100 million in annual income.

“It's a terrible idea, for two reasons,” Holtz-Eakin says. “Number one, you shouldn't have a tax system and an alternative tax system. You should have one tax system that you believe raises revenue in a fair and efficient fashion. The second is, there's a reason there's a difference between taxable income and book income. And a lot of it has to do with the use of legal tax deductions you set up in the first one. It makes no sense whatsoever.”