Wrath of the People

It is painfully obvious that we have a major problem with our tax code.  Last month the Senate Finance Committee promised senators that their tax break proposals would be kept secret until December 31, 2064.  What’s more, the memo said that in addition to the committee’s chairman and top Republican, only 10 staffers would be authorized to see the proposals.  Only two digital copies of them would be made, and paper copies would be kept in locked safes.  WOW… our politicians fear the people!

Here are just a few reasons why we need to fix a broken tax system:

• The tax code contains nearly four million words.  If someone were to try to read the entire code aloud, it would take them more than 18 uninterrupted days.
• Not only is the code long, but it is maddeningly complex.  There are 42 different definitions of a small business in the code.
• There are 15 different tax incentives for higher education.  So many that the IRS had to publish a booklet just to explain and simplify the higher education tax incentives.  And that book is 90 pages long.
• The code is such a labyrinth, 90 percent of American taxpayers have to use an accountant or some kind of computer software to file their tax returns.  Even with all this assistance, it still takes the average taxpayer 13 hours to gather and compile the receipts and forms to comply with the code.

This promise to keep comments secret is a gimmick if you ask me, but just shows how bad things have gotten.

Who knows…. maybe our politicians will surprise us, but don’t hold your breath.