[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 19 (Tuesday, March 3, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1245-S1246]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PRESIDENT CLINTON'S STATEMENT CONCERNING THE TAX CODE TERMINATION ACT

  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, yesterday, while millions of American 
households across the country were struggling to understand which of 
the 480 separate IRS tax forms applied to them, while they were 
trudging along, trying to read through the accompanying 280 
supplemental explanatory IRS pamphlets, while their tax accountants and 
tax attorneys worked hard to keep them abreast of the more than 800,000 
words which make up this country's Tax Code, and while families 
nervously anticipated the impending IRS deadline of April 15, which is 
now less than 6 weeks away, President Clinton had the audacity to call 
my efforts to sunset this country's incomprehensible maze that we call 
a Tax Code in the year 2001--irresponsible.
  Following his speech, President Clinton's chief economic adviser Gene 
Sperling equated my bill, the Tax Code Termination Act, with ``reckless 
river boat gambling.'' Worse yet, President Clinton's Deputy Treasury 
Secretary stated, ``We have a Tax Code today that works better for 
Americans as they do what is crucial to them in their lives.'' He said 
that the Tax Code works for Americans.
  No; Americans may feel they work for the Tax Code. They surely do not 
believe that the Tax Code works for them. In short, the President and 
his advisers were telling the American people in the midst of their 
``tax season migraines,'' that this Tax Code works just fine. Are the 
American people to believe that President Clinton and his economic 
advisers do not see anything wrong with Americans spending a combined 
total of 5.4 billion hours--the equivalent of 2 full work weeks--
complying with tax provisions? Are Americans to believe that their 
President does not see anything wrong with the Tax Code that costs this 
country more than $157 billion per year? Is it possible that the 
President and his key advisers see nothing wrong with spending $13.7 
billion per year enforcing the Tax Code, yet the IRS fails to provide 
correct answers to taxpayers seeking assistance almost one-quarter of 
the time?

  I think the American people will be able to decide who is being 
irresponsible and will be able to easily separate the ``river boat 
gamblers'' from the sincere legislators working to better their 
everyday lives.
  President Clinton's criticism of the Tax Code Termination Act centers 
around the notion that one should not set a date to sunset a law until 
a new law is written and ready to replace it. Doing so, in President 
Clinton's eyes, would be irresponsible. Well, is it irresponsible to 
sunset this country's transportation programs, which spend over $23 
billion per year, before a new transportation program is written and 
ready to be put into law? Is it irresponsible to sunset this country's 
higher education programs before a new law is drafted? Of course not. 
In fact, right now this Congress is in the midst of debating a new 
transportation spending program and a new higher education program for 
one simple reason. When these major spending bills were passed and 
signed into law, they contained sunset provisions which terminated 
these programs 5 years after they were implemented. In fact, every 
major spending program currently on the books contains similar sunset 
language.
  The truth of the matter is that President Clinton doesn't mind 
sunsetting provisions when the law allows the Government to spend 
billions of dollars in taxpayers' money. The President does not mind 
sunsetting Head Start, doesn't mind sunsetting Pell grants or school 
lunches. Sunsetting only becomes irresponsible to this President when 
the law being sunset deals with provisions which take money from the 
pockets of hard-working Americans.
  The Tax Code Termination Act is anything but ``irresponsible.'' This 
act simply sets a date certain, well into the future, when the Tax Code 
will need to be reauthorized, which will simply place taxes and 
spending on equal footing. This bill will force Congress to completely 
rethink how we collect hard-earned taxpayer money and, as with major 
spending programs, it will allow a healthy debate to ensue on the 
merits, effectiveness and efficiency of the law as it is currently 
written.
  Why is the President afraid to treat taxes and spending equally? Why 
should sunset provisions only apply to one but not the other? Maybe it 
is because the President knows that this tax system cannot withstand 
close scrutiny--that it can't even stand cursory scrutiny. Maybe the 
President is afraid that Americans will feel empowered to force this 
Congress to rethink the amount and methods used to take their hard-
earned money. Maybe the President is afraid that he will lose the power 
to hide tax provisions that benefit favored special-interest groups 
deep within this large and complex Tax Code? Finally, the President 
stated yesterday that the Tax Code Termination Act would create 
uncertainty--skillfully noting that ``uncertainty is the enemy of 
economic growth.'' Mr. President, is there any certainty in this 
system? Can one be sure that despite trying diligently to comply with 
this complex and incomprehensible tax system, one still won't be 
dragged into court and fined for failure to accurately comply with 
every jot and every tittle of the Tax Code? Can one be certain that 
they haven't overpaid or underpaid, that they haven't missed a 
deduction that is owed them or claimed a deduction for which they don't 
qualify?

  No; the only thing certain about this system is that it guarantees 
one's rights can be trampled by an overempowered IRS and that one's 
economic freedom can be jeopardized by overzealous tax collectors.

[[Page S1246]]

  While the President claims that his opposition to the Tax Code 
Termination Act is to protect business by ensuring them a long-term 
landscape on which to make major business investment decisions, most 
business-led tax organizations actually support our efforts to 
terminate this Tax Code. The National Federation of Independent 
Business, Citizens for a Sound Economy, and others know firsthand how 
many billions of dollars per year they waste trying to understand this 
Tax Code, much less comply with the Tax Code. They see their profits 
eaten up by tax lawyers and tax accountants. They know full well that 
the real uncertainty is in the current code, not in any distant sunset 
of the current code, and they know that the Tax Code Termination Act 
will create a clean slate on which a fairer, simpler Tax Code can be 
built.
  I am certain that when and if President Clinton attempts to take this 
debate outside the beltway, he will quickly learn who is being 
irresponsible; he will quickly see where the American people stand on 
this important issue.
  Finally, the Tax Code Termination Act, sponsored by myself and 
Senator Brownback of Kansas, is currently supported by the entire 
Senate Republican leadership and is being cosponsored by 26 fellow 
Senators. I urge the President to rethink his position, and I urge my 
fellow Members to get behind this effort and take the first step in 
simplifying our Tax Code by setting a date certain that this code will 
expire.
  It is one thing, Mr. President, to be cautious. It is one thing to be 
prudent. It is quite another to be controlled by timidity and frozen 
into inaction. As my colleagues have said, the Tax Code has had its 
place in history, now we need to make it a part of history. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in that effort.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

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