[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H8165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            OVERHAUL THE IRS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997 the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns] is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the imperative need 
for tax reform. It is not simply that Americans pay too much taxes, it 
is that the entire U.S. tax system is too complex, too bureaucratic, 
and too unfair.
  When the income tax was first enacted 84 years ago, there was one 
page of instructions coupled with a one-page form. Today, there are 480 
IRS tax forms and 17,000 pages of IRS laws and regulations. Even the 
instructions alone for the 1040 EZ form are 28 pages long, and 293,760 
trees must be cut down each year just to supply the 8 billion pages of 
paper needed for filing the country's income taxes.
  The complexity of the system requires 136,000 employees at the IRS 
and elsewhere in the Government to administer the laws, costing the 
American taxpayers $13.7 billion to enforce and oversee the Code. So 
while tax reduction is a very important, much-needed step forward, we 
must not forget that it is a first step in many that must be taken. We 
should continue to work to reduce the tax burden, but we also must 
simplify the Tax Code.
  To address the latter, Congress has an obligation to pursue tax 
fairness, yes, and simplification for all Americans, whether that be a 
flat tax, a national sales tax, a graduated tax, or even a value-added 
tax. Each has its merits, and certainly all are better than the current 
flawed system. It is essential that any overhaul ostensibly based on 
fairness must be just that: fair to everyone. Otherwise, we have not 
bettered the system, we have only exacerbated the already existing 
problem.
  Furthermore, and most importantly, the IRS itself is in dire need of 
reform. It is the exemplification of all that is wrong with our overly 
complex and burdensome Tax Code.
  In a recent survey, American taxpayers rated the IRS last in customer 
satisfaction among 200 private companies, local government agencies, 
even the U.S. Postal Service. Furthermore, the GAO reports that the IRS 
has been unable to accurately balance its own books for the last 4 
years, reporting that in 1992 the IRS could not even account for 64 
percent of its own budget. After spending $4 billion, the IRS 
acknowledged that its Tax Systems Modernization Computer Program still 
has not produced a working system. As a result, the IRS clerks continue 
to type away at a computer set up 30 years ago with an error rate of 22 
percent.
  It should be obvious to everyone that the entire U.S. tax system is 
in desperate need of reform. Taxes are too high. The Tax Code is too 
complex and burdensome, and the IRS itself is a bureaucratic mess.
  Congress has an obligation to act, an obligation to reform the 
burdensome and monstrous Tax Code. We should seize this opportunity 
now. We should work to affect positive changes in our Nation's revenue 
collection agency, work toward simplifying our overly complex Tax Code, 
and work to bring some sanity to the incomprehensible Tax Code.
  The unfair and oppressive tax system of today is not unlike the 
system that gave rise to the American Revolution in 1776. We have, as I 
mentioned, an overly complicated system exemplified by an immense and 
impersonal Government bureaucracy.
  Mr. Speaker, America deserves better. Americans deserve fairness. 
They deserve further tax relief; they deserve tax simplification, and 
they deserve a new, less intrusive and less burdensome IRS. We cannot 
just fix the system today, we must replace it.

                          ____________________