February 9, 2009 11:41AM # Power of Paper By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) --- SHARE When I have an op-ed on an electronic site, such as *NRO*, I will receive maybe 1 or 2 emails with feedback from strangers. [My op-ed on tax cheats and tax reform yesterday ](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020602845.html)in the *Washington Post* generated 33 responses from strangers. Most came between about 8:30 am and 12 noon as people were likely sitting down with their morning coffee and flipping through the old-fashioned paper pages of Outlook. For the record, 29 were generally favorable toward my comments and major tax reform, although about half of those folks rapped me for not coming down harder on the tax cheats. Four responses were quite negative or hostile. All the comments were quite thoughtful except one: “FU to you and Steve Forbes on the flat tax BS propaganda.” To that person, I am assigning homework: Please read [this study](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3681) and [my book](http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=33&pid=1441407&__utma=1.1733800802492914400.1214493394.1233869693.1233934432.77&__utmb=1.4.10.1234200837&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1232995670.66.1.utmcsr=yahoo|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=cato%20inst&__utmv=-&__utmk=181361319) and send me a more sophisticated critique. ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).