[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4640-H4641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           AMERICANS DESERVE ACTION ON REFORMING THE TAX CODE

  (Mr. COOK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

[[Page H4641]]

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COOK. Mr. Speaker, let us face it. If we were to start from 
scratch, no one in his right mind would ever come up with the current 
Tax Code, not in 1 million years. It is incredibly complicated, it has 
countless loopholes, special cases, exemptions, and arcane provisions.
  Average Americans sit down with their 1040s and soon they are 
frustrated, flustered, and often angry. Then they start on the 
schedules and all the special forms, and then they cannot figure out if 
the special cases applies to the special cases and all the 
instructions, and then it gets worse from there. Heaven help you if the 
IRS disagrees with your interpretation of one of the IRS regulations.
  It is time to start over and come up with a simple, fair, honest tax 
system. It is time to start a national debate on what the new Tax Code 
should look like. It is long overdue, and the American people deserve 
action on this important issue.

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