For Democrats, those include strengthening laws to protect air and water quality; Republicans are intent on tax cuts, including a 7-cent reduction in the gasoline tax.
But was it all in vain now they have a stridently Left-wing government intent on taxing startups to within an inch of their life?
She pointed to the president's announcement last week of his intent to close tax loopholes for offshore tax havens as another example.
The intent of the tax system isn't to help people avoid paying taxes; it's to offer limited exemptions to taxing income that we as a society don't think should be taxed.
Critics have observed that taxes on site values can reduce the incentive to make sites valuable, thereby weakening the intent of the tax.
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, said he was still intent on delivering tax cuts in the longer term and suggesting ditching the GST option in the pre-election tax package was not his idea.
For every concession to the Northern League, which backs Mr. Tremonti and is intent on keeping tax revenue local, Mr. Berlusconi also had to throw a bone to the poorer south.
The message, Mr. Plouffe said, is that the president is fighting for the middle class, and to restore the economy, against a Republican Party that he says is more intent on preserving tax breaks for millionaires, hedge fund owners and corporations.
He is consulting Parliament about lowering the bar for prosecution, so that in future the taxman would not have to prove intent to evade tax by placing money offshore, merely that it was undeclared income.Turkey put more pressure on Twitter by demanding it pay taxes on any profit it makes in the country.
Governments in Italy, and in countries across economically distressed Southern Europe, are intent on fighting tax evasion as austerity budgets and high unemployment take a toll on the rank and file citizens, and some well-known people have been caught in the cross-fire.
