(CNN)As Congress returns next week, attention will turn to matters of budget, spending and taxes. The tax reform package that legislators will take up will have major implications for years to come, and we should get it right.

Unlike health care, tax reform can be simple, but I’m afraid those who are in charge will make it unnecessarily complicated, especially when coupled with an alarming timidity that could render the reform’s impact nearly meaningless.

There is much talk from the wonks in Washington about the need to make tax cuts “revenue neutral,” or offset elsewhere in the tax code. Let me tell you what that really means, and why it is a terrible idea, especially here in the “Swamp.”

Revenue neutral ultimately means that someone pays more for someone else to pay less. It means tax “reform” without real tax cuts.