From Kevin A. Hassett, American Enterprise Institute, in the May 14 edition of National Review, "The new age of anxiety":

Taxmegeddon is coming. This grim prophecy refers to the scheduled termination of a wide array of tax policies at the end of this year. The list is staggering. It includes the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, the end of the payroll-tax holiday, and the start of the new healthcare surtax and the Medicare payroll-tax increase. On top of all of that, Congress will likely hit the debt limit again around the end of the year.

While few observers expect Congress to do nothing, uncertainty about taxes and fiscal policy is likely to skyrocket by the end of the year. This heightened uncertainty is cause for significant pessimism about the second half of 2012.

Without Congressional action by year end, 101 tax provisions will have expired making informed investment decisions next to impossible. In a statement submitted April 26 for a House Ways and Means hearing on the provisions, Business Roundtable President John Engler explained and provided examples.

While extension of expiring provisions is no substitute for the urgent need for competitive tax reform, failure to extend these provisions before Congress can complete work on tax reform will only further diminish America's competitive position and result in significant deleterious effects on business expansion and job growth. Congress should immediately and seamlessly extend the expired business tax provisions from last year, including the research credit and important international provisions -- specifically, active financing income and "look through" rules -- and provide an extension of temporary 100 percent bonus depreciation to promote the economic recovery and increase private sector employment.

Also of recent note from Hassett, an AEI senior fellow and director of Economic Policy Studies, a piece on the economic imperative of corporate tax reform, "The Stubbornest Tax."