[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 36 (Thursday, March 26, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TAX CODE MUST GO

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, here is a quiz. What has over 3,500 pages, 
is practically impossible to understand and is so complicated that rich 
people, poor people, middle class people all think it is an unfair 
monstrosity? Of course it is the Federal Tax Code, all 3,500 pages of 
it.
  The Tax Code is a monument to the power of special interests, a 
symbol of big government and liberalism run amok, a scourge to all who 
believe in fairness, openness and common sense. I am convinced that 
just reforming the Tax Code is not going to work. No, Mr. Speaker, the 
Tax Code will have to go because the Tax Code is fundamentally corrupt. 
It is not an honest system when people trying to do the best they 
possibly can to figure out how much they owe make innocent mistakes and 
then get hammered by the IRS. A simple tax, maybe a sales tax, maybe a 
flat tax, with a low interest rate is the only way to have fairness, 
transparency and honesty in the way the Federal Government collects 
revenue.
  Let us get serious. Let us replace, not just reform, the 3,500 pages 
of the Tax Code.

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