[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 36 (Friday, March 2, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2560-S2561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ISAKSON (for himself, Mr. Allard, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. 
        Crapo, and Mr. Graham):
  S. 747. A bill to terminate the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, back in Georgia, we have a saying. When 
people are treating the symptoms and never treating the cause, we say 
they are avoiding the 800-pound gorilla in the living room. I wish to 
talk for a minute about a 6-pound gorilla that is in the United States 
Capitol. It is called the U.S. Tax Code.
  Printed in the 8-point font type, the U.S. Tax Code weighs 6 pounds, 
but the

[[Page S2561]]

burden is equal to that or more of an 800-pound gorilla on the backs of 
American business and American families. To that end, I am joined by 
Senators Vitter, Chambliss, Allard, Graham, and others in the 
introduction of Tax Code simplification legislation to finally address 
the 800-pound gorilla in the living room and the 6-pound gorilla on the 
back of every American.
  This bill simply calls on the Congress to establish a tax review 
commission which will be required to report back to the Congress on 
July 4, 2010. Its job will be to analyze all options for revenue for 
the United States. Consumption taxes or sales taxes, flat taxes, income 
taxes, productivity taxes, whatever it might be, wipe the slate clean 
and say: If we could do it all over again, what would be the best way 
to finance this great country of ours.
  Second, once they have made those determinations, they make the 
recommendations back to the Congress. Then it is the Congress's 
responsibility to either adopt the commission's recommendations, much 
as we do with BRAC, or to reject them and affirmatively ratify the Tax 
Code of 1986, amended thousands of times, now weighing 6 pounds on the 
back of every single American.
  All of us have different ideas over what is the right way to do 
things. All of us know the United States of America needs revenue to 
operate. All of us know that. But since 1986 and the major rewrite of 
the Tax Code, every year all we have done is decorate it like a 
Christmas tree, amend it here, lower it there, raise it somewhere 
else--until it has become an absolute burden.
  We all know--I know the Presiding Officer deals with it in his State, 
as I do--the tremendous upheaval over the alternative minimum tax which 
passed in the 1960s to address the 169 taxpayers who made over a 
million dollars who did not pay any taxes. Today, the AMT affects 
everybody, including a family of four making $50,000 a year, if they 
own their own home, deduct interest, and itemize their deductions. That 
is just wrong.
  So rather than take individual Senators--I respect every one of us in 
the Chamber, including, obviously, myself--take our ideas and try to 
volley them back and forth, why not get a distinguished commission of 
learned people to sit down for a protracted period of time, analyze 
what is right for this country, and make recommendations to us?
  We solved the political disability in terms of reforming the military 
when we passed BRAC. Why not take the greatest disability on the 
American people--and that is the Tax Code--and approach it the same 
way: have thoughtful people who are knowledgeable and understand the 
Tax Code as it is make the recommendations on what might make it 
better? It may be a sales tax or a consumption tax. It may be a flat 
income tax. It may be a series of fees or other revenue streams. It may 
be a combination.
  But what we need most importantly is simplicity, fairness, equity, 
and I would submit one other thing--participation by all Americans. 
Everybody has a stake in this country, and everybody should contribute 
something. I think if we open up the Tax Code to scrutiny, we give this 
group 3 solid years to look and make their determination, we get the 
recommendation back by July 4, and then we debate it in this Congress, 
then, by the end of 2010, we have two choices: We ratify what we have 
today, which is the 600-pound gorilla on the back of every American 
citizen, or we look to a vision for the future and adopt a fair and a 
simpler and a more equitable tax system for every citizen of the United 
States of America.
  I urge my colleagues to join us on this legislation, help bring about 
and make it a reality, and, for the first time since 1986, address the 
cause and not the symptom of the cumbersome nature of the American Tax 
Code.
                                 ______