Baucus Says Tax Overhaul That Raises Revenues Is Moving Forward Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said on Monday that an overhaul of the tax code was moving forward, but that any plan must raise more revenue, help reduce the deficit and address the nation's growing disparity between rich and poor. "Everyone needs to contribute," Mr. Baucus said during a speech at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a centrist research organization in Washington. Mr. Baucus has been publicly quiet as less senior senators have jostled for the spotlight over efforts to address the nation's fiscal problems. But he said he had been moving forward on a tax code overhaul that would be a pivotal part of any long-term deficit reduction deal. Mr. Baucus participated on Wednesday in a secret dinner on the end-of-year "fiscal cliff" that included Democratic Senate leaders like Charles E. Schumer of New York and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois. He has called a private, members-only meeting of the Senate Finance Committee for later this week. "I'm making progress on a detailed tax reform proposal that would attract bipartisan support," he said. That plan is likely to stay under wraps until after the November election, unless broad support for it coalesces earlier. Mr. Baucus does not want partisan lines drawn around the plan during the campaign season. Democrats, sensing they have enormous leverage going into the end-of-year fiscal showdown, are taking firm stands. In January, the Bush-era cuts to income, capital gains and dividends tax rates are set to expire, and the first wave of automatic defense cuts are scheduled to go into force. A new article in The New Yorker asserts that President Obama, regardless of the election results, is willing to allow all the tax cuts to expire on Jan. 1 if Republicans refuse to compromise on his demands to allow tax cuts for the rich to lapse. Similarly, Mr. Baucus signaled that he would not easily give in to Republican demands to cancel automatic defense cuts, known as "sequestration." "Sequestration is leverage that should not be given up easily," he told reporters after his speech. Mr. Baucus said deficit reduction and tax reform could not be separated. Measured against the economy, the nation's debt is the highest since World War II, but tax receipts are the lowest since then. "We simply don't raise enough revenue," Mr. Baucus said. Since the 1986 tax code overhaul, the American economy has grown by 88 percent, he said, "but the rising tide has not lifted all boats." Tax policy can play a role in addressing the wealth disparity, he said. He also hinted at major changes to the corporate income tax code that would lower rates and curtail, if not end, the United States" worldwide corporate income taxation, but would tighten rules that allow American companies to shift income to offshore tax havens. Instead of automatically extending dozens of temporary business tax breaks, he said, Congress this year must pick which breaks should live and which should lapse. "Tax reform is a once-in-a-generation opportunity," he said. We can cement America's preeminence. Introducing Mr. Baucus, former Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, lent his support to the finance chairman's approach. "The tax piece of the debt puzzle is going to be given equal prowess with entitlement reform," said Mr. Domenici, who, along with the Democratic economist Alice Rivlin, has his own broad deficit reduction plan. You can't have one without the other.