Political reforms and electoral campaigns can sail or fail based largely on how they are marketed.

In the 1994 election, Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans in Congress successfully rallied behind the Contract With America.

This year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel won an election that steered her party into a multi-party coalition whose centerpiece initiative is called the “beer coaster reform.”

This proposal has nothing to do with where a glass of lager rests. It’s about simplifying (and reducing) Germany’s income tax rates. Supporters’ notion is that a tax return should be short enough that it could fit on a beer coaster.

That definitely would be one very small tax form.