Question: "With the Republican candidates talking about completely scrapping the current tax system, what would it actually take to accomplish this? It seems to have the visibility, the public seems to be behind it, it's reached the presidential level - what's the hold up?" -- jasamc

Answer: What would it take to scrap the current tax system? My best guess would be a Republican President who supports an alternative system (flat tax or Fair tax, for example), a bare minimum of a 20 seat lead in the House (probably more like 30-40) and probably 70 Republican Senators.

Why would we probably need those kind of numbers?

Because from what I've seen, Democrats would be overwhelmingly opposed to replacing our current tax system, independents would be more indifferent, but still against it by a good margin, and Republicans would favor doing it by, let's say, 3 to 1.

Could this change? Sure. But, not without building a lot more support for scrapping the tax system with the American public.