Not that I believe you think it is, but this isn't exactly a startling new idea.
The same forces described in the article are also responsible for lobbying against simplicity in general.
There is a whole giant industry that would go away in a puff of smoke (or at least be drastically reduced) if individual taxes weren't unnecessarily complex.
Also, everyone wants a simpler tax code except for the parts that benefit them. Few economists think the mortgage interest deduction is a good idea, but try telling that to homeowners.
I'd exchange MI deduction for equivalent reduction in income tax. But the government wants to keep power to induce people into doing what it thinks is better, taxes and deductions are a major tool in this. Without explicitly giving up that power, nothing would change, so homeowners are not the main thing to blame it, they just do what the government wants them to do and makes profitable for them to do.
The same forces described in the article are also responsible for lobbying against simplicity in general.
There is a whole giant industry that would go away in a puff of smoke (or at least be drastically reduced) if individual taxes weren't unnecessarily complex.