[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        U.S. TAX CODE IS A MESS

  (Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Tax Code is a mess. When 
the income tax was first introduced in 1914, the entire Code was 14 
pages long and the top tax rate was 7 percent. Today it is nearly 4,000 
pages and constantly changing.
  While last year alone we managed to add 334 pages, create 285 new 
sections, and add 824 amendments, that is bad enough, but it is not the 
whole story. The code alone is only a part of the law. The rest comes 
in the form of implementing regulations and tax court decisions which 
make the code even more incomprehensible. It literally grows every day. 
Some estimates put the cost of compliance at over $250 billion per 
year. That is $250 billion of unproductive effort. Think what that 
could do for the economy if it was channeled into other areas.
  A majority of Americans want an end to the current code and we have a 
responsibility to take this problem head-on. We cannot continue with 
business as usual. We need a national debate to build a consensus for 
sweeping change. The Tax Code Termination Act is the first essential 
step in breaking free from the cycle of incrementalism which has 
produced the current code.

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