[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 13 (Monday, February 23, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FUNDAMENTAL TAX REFORM

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I want to talk for just a few minutes about 
a long-term goal of many Senate Republicans, and I think most 
Americans. And that is fundamental tax reform.
  Our Tax Code contains the accumulation of 85 years of various special 
interest provisions, and provisions that have just been added through 
one tax bill or another. And it has become more complicated, more 
difficult, and more unfair with every passing year.
  Since the Federal Government first started taxing Americans' income, 
the tax beast has grown, and the power of the tax collector along with 
it. That is why we need IRS reform, and why we will have an IRS reform 
bill on the floor of the Senate by the end of March so that we can pass 
it before April 15th of this year. It certainly is overdue. But we have 
found a lot of the problems that we have suspected really do exist and 
in many ways are worse than the worst horror stories we have heard.
  We now have a system in which the Federal Government takes one dollar 
out of every five dollars that you earn. And the IRS uses its coercive 
powers to pry into every aspect of financial life and personal life. It 
has gotten totally out of control.
  The copy of the Tax Code that I have here contains thousands of pages 
in very small print, and weighs 6\1/2\ pounds. How could the average 
working small businessman, farmer, rancher, or individual be expected 
to cope with and understand all that is in these two very large 
volumes?
  The IRS has an annual budget now of $7.7 billion. We spend five times 
more to pay tax auditors to harass hard-working citizens than we spend 
to clean up Superfund waste sites.
  It really doesn't make sense.
  It is important that we in Congress admit that we are part of the 
problem because every time we have good intentions we pass another tax 
bill that reduces taxes--hopefully, in most instances. But it doesn't 
make it simpler. In many ways it quite often makes it more complicated.
  The Congress writes the tax law. And almost every time we pass a tax 
bill we make the code more complex, increase the burden on the 
taxpayer, and make it harder to enforce.
  For all of these reasons, America needs fundamental tax reform.
  Incremental tax cuts are good. And I hope we can have some this year. 
And I am glad we were able to take a small step toward reducing the 
taxpayers' burden last year in the very critical areas of capital 
gains, estate tax, and families with children.
  To go where we really need to go, however, we must force the Congress 
to act.
  To make fundamental tax reform happen, we need a ``forcing event,'' a 
deadline.
  I firmly believe that Congress will never commit itself to replacing 
the Tax Code with something simpler, flatter, and growth-friendly, 
unless we create our own deadline.
  For that reason, I want to announce today that I will ask Budget 
Committee Chairman Domenici to put a sense-of-the-Senate provision in 
this year's budget resolution that the current Tax Code should be 
terminated as of December 31, 2001.
  I am also an original cosponsor of Senator Hutchinson's bill, S. 
1520, The Tax Code Termination Act.
  In addition to the sense-of-the-Senate provision in the budget 
resolution, we will vote on legislation like Senator Hutchinson's bill 
this year.
  It creates the deadline to force Washington and the American people 
to make some hard choices but to make the right choices.
  We will then be able to see who is serious about replacing our rat's 
nest Tax Code, and who wants to defend the current tax system.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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