Back in the KPMG panel, David Brockway, who served on the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation from 1983 to 1987 and is now a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP, said he was skeptical about the political feasibility of the stated goal of reducing tax rates while controlling the deficit. "I don't think there's anybody out there talking about (tax reform) as a means of raising revenue.

"If you can't do it on a revenue-neutral basis how can you do is on a revenue-raising basis," he said, adding that reducing the corporate tax rate is "something the general public doesn't care about and is not going to care about."

Quipped panelist John L. Buckley, a Georgetown University law professor who was the Ways and Means Committee's chief tax counsel until 2010: "There's a reason why the people who propose these radical changes aren't elected officials."

For his part, Sowers Machinery's Van Voorhis says he's adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

"Given a long enough transition period, we could adjust," he said. "If Washington could reinvest and do the things they need to do that could make it worthwhile."