Throughout the novel, Dr. Faraday claims to be giving us the objective facts about what he sees in front of him, and making "sensible deductions," because "that's what doctors do".
Another sensible approach is to cap deductions at 28 percent, or to convert deductions, which disproportionately benefit high-bracket taxpayers, to tax credits, which would provide the same benefit to all taxpayers, regardless of tax bracket.
Start by helping patients act like sensible consumers: Replace the tax deduction for health insurance, which costs some $200 billion a year in forgone taxes, with a less generous tax credit that insulates lower-paid workers, while discouraging the rest from buying overgenerous plans.
Mr Obama needs more tax revenue, and corporate America's foreign profits are an appealing pot of cash particularly since Congress seems set to reject the administration's other (sensible) plan to reduce tax deductions for richer folk.
Our rules of tort law reject such deductions on the sensible grounds that wrongdoers should not benefit from their victims' foresight.
A more sensible rule would be to limit charitable deductions to amounts above a basic threshold.
"Our message to lawmakers is the charitable deduction must be included in any sensible tax reform legislation.
A sensible cap could be placed on the health insurance deduction for business, for example, and the regained revenues could be directed toward health insurance for the uninsured or to subsidize small business to provide employee health insurance.
Part of the sweeping tax reforms of 1986, the minimum tax is a sensible rule requiring corporations that have used loopholes and deductions to reduce their tax bills to zero to pay at least something to the federal Treasury.
The simplicity of the rate structure for individuals, the expansion of the standard deduction, the limitation on deductions, and the reduced corporate rate were broadly sensible.
"It's a pretty sensible overhaul and improves the code to make sure only genuine charity is eligible for a charitable deduction," said Carl Davis, a tax analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
