[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 19 (Tuesday, March 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H734-H735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TAX CODE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President came out and 
criticized a piece of legislation of which I am a cosponsor of that 
would call for sunsetting the Tax Code in the year 2001. Frankly, I 
think when he came out and did that, he really did defend the 
indefensible.
  We have a Tax Code in this country which has become an abomination 
for the people who have to comply with that law, from individuals, to 
families to small businesses. Look at where we are today in terms of 
the volumes of information, the volumes of instructions, the volumes of 
actual forms of tax law that are out there, the laws and regulations, 
some 6,000 pages, 34.5 pounds. We spend in this country over 5 billion 
man-hours a year complying with the Tax Code. There are 480 different 
forms.
  As I went through my tax return this year, I did it a couple of weeks 
ago, the thing that occurred to me is that the people of this country, 
even though we lowered taxes last summer in the balanced budget 
agreement, the people of this country have an even more difficult job 
this year of complying with the Tax Code than they did last year, 
because every time Congress touches the Tax Code, we make it more 
complicated.
  I went through those forms. In the back of one particular form there 
is this elaborate computation and elaborate calculation in which it 
asks you if this is smaller than this or lesser than this but larger 
than this, multiply it by 15 percent and subtract it from here and keep 
going, and on and on and on.
  We have a responsibility to the taxpaying people of this country to 
make the revenue system, the collection system, in this country fair, 
and to make it simple. So when we talk about eliminating the Tax Code 
and coming up with a new Tax Code for a new century, that ought to be a 
goal that all of us in this chamber share, and I would hope that the 
White House shares it as well.
  When the President made his statement yesterday critical of this 
particular piece of legislation, it indicated he is willing to defend 
the status quo and willing to go along with what has been the program 
here for too many years in Washington, D.C.
  I think that if we are going in fact to reform the Tax Code in this 
country, that it really starts with a couple of principles, and I think 
the first one has to do with the fact that if we are going to this year 
go about the process of writing a tax bill, that the first thing we 
ought to have is a principle that it ought to be broad-based.
  So we have introduced legislation, I along with the gentlewoman from 
Washington (Ms. Dunn), that in fact would deliver tax relief to the 
extent we are able to do that this year in a way that is broad-based, 
in which all people benefit from a growing economy.
  We have also introduced legislation that would further simplify, 
rather than complicate, the Tax Code. That is something, as I said, 
that is desperately needed. We need to move in that direction in the 
next century, so we can have a new Tax Code for a new century.
  So having said that, and having noted that there is a lot of internal 
resistance in this particular city to changing the Tax Code, I take 
some consolation in the fact that the same resistance was there when it 
came to welfare reform a few years back, and when it came to a balanced 
budget agreement.
  People said all of these things could not be done. And what had to be 
done in order for Congress to get to that goal is to establish a 
deadline, to create a deadline out there, to say this is what we are 
going to do on this date.
  The only way we can do that, with the Tax Code is to create a similar 
deadline, and that is to say to the people of this country that we are 
going to do away with the existing code and that we are going to start 
over, with a new Tax Code that makes sense to the people who have to 
pay the taxes in this country.
  So as we pursue this legislation, sunsetting the Internal Revenue 
Code in the year 2001, I think that it ought to be something that 
everybody in this body can support, because certainly the people in 
this country are willing to support that. We cannot continue to go on 
defending the status quo and allowing all the resistance to change that 
is in this Washington-based community to keep us from doing the right 
thing for the people of this country.
  As I said earlier, as we move towards that goal, to the extent this 
year we are able to accomplish anything meaningful in terms of tax 
relief for the American public, that we ought to do it in a way, 
one, that is broad case based, and one that will further simplify and 
not complicate the Tax Code.

  We have introduced legislation, the first piece of which would drop 
more people out of the higher 28 percent bracket into the lower 15 
percent bracket. That is to say to the people of this country that we 
want to encourage you to work harder to improve your lot in life, to 
earn more. In saying that, we are not going to, as a matter of policy, 
take from you 28 cents of each additional dollar that you earn.
  In fact, our legislation which raises the income threshold at which 
the 28 percent rate would apply actually drops 10 million filers in 
this country out of the higher 28 percent bracket and into the lower 15 
percent bracket. In all, 29 million filers in America would benefit 
from this tax relief to the tune of about $1,200 per filer. That is 
real relief for the people, the hard working taxpayers in this country.
  Whether the issue is health care, child care, retirement or 
education, this enables the people of this country to make the decision 
in the fundamental way about what is the best way to meet those needs. 
They can take those dollars that they would save in the form of lower 
taxes and apply that toward child care needs, towards education needs, 
toward health care needs.
  That is a matter of philosophy, something we very much agree with, 
and that is that the people of this country ought to be trusted to make 
that decision on their own, rather than having the bureaucracy in 
Washington direct targeted tax relief and say you are a winner or loser 
based upon whether or

[[Page H735]]

not you behave in a certain way. That is the philosophy embodied in 
this tax relief bill.
  The second bill is similar in that it raises the personal exemption 
for each filer in this country. To the extent you have additional 
dependents, it raises that exemption from $2,700 to $3,400, thereby 
reducing the taxable income to families in this country.
  Again, it does it in an across-the-board way and moves us closer to 
the goal of simplification, so the ultimate goal of a new Tax Code for 
a new century can be met. I believe that, again, is ultimately where we 
ought to be heading.
  So to the extent we do anything in the next couple of years as we 
have this debate about tax reform, to lower the tax burden on American 
people in this country, it ought to be with an eye toward the actual 
ultimate goal of a new Tax Code for a new century. I support the 
legislation of the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Largent), who is on the 
floor, to sunset the existing tax code, and I look forward to working 
with him to see that that becomes the law of the land, irrespective of 
the footdragging that is happening on the other end of Pennsylvania 
Avenue.

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