[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 58 (Monday, April 14, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2956-S2957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 TAXES

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, tomorrow is April 15, the day tax returns 
are due to the IRS for most citizens. It is a day most Americans meet 
with fear and loathing. Even though most taxpayers will not file their 
returns tomorrow because they have already done so or because they have 
filed for an extension, April 15 remains a symbol of a burdensome tax 
liability and an even more burdensome tax compliance system for 
millions of Americans.
  April 15 is met with apprehension and dread for many reasons. The 
primary one is understandable. People do not like paying taxes. Who can 
blame them? Under the best of circumstances, if you owe Uncle Sam, a 
day spent with your tax return is worse than a day spent with the 
dentist. Yes, the IRS has become one of the most despised institutions 
in American life. However, a good share of this agency's reputation is 
undeserved. In fact, considering all we require the Internal Revenue 
Service to do and the resources we give them, the folks who work there 
do a pretty darn good job.

[[Page S2957]]

  Paying taxes is never going to be popular, nor is it ever going to be 
fun. However, we all know it does not have to be as bad as it is. A 
great deal of the aggravation, a good share of the complexity, and much 
of the confusion is probably unnecessary.
  I could spend many hours speaking about what is wrong with our tax 
system. It is, in military parlance, a target-rich environment. In 
fact, I expect we will hear a fair number of our colleagues speaking 
today and tomorrow on the Senate floor deploring the tax system. But 
amid all this denouncement of the IRS and the Tax Code, we in Congress 
should recognize an ugly truth; that is, a great deal of the blame for 
our far less than first-rate tax system lies right here with us, the 
Members of Congress who created it and who have the power to improve 
it.
  I wish to focus on a disturbing trend we have seen growing much worse 
in recent years that is adding a great deal of stress to our already 
troubled tax system. This is the increasing tendency of the Congress to 
create temporary tax provisions and then allow them to expire while 
leaving taxpayers in limbo as to what the rules are going to be.
  If we take a look at over the past dozen or so years, we see a 
growing proclivity on the part of Congress to enact tax provisions on a 
temporary basis rather than permanently. This has mostly been done to 
satisfy the often perverse demands of our budget rules.
  But whatever the reasons, the effect of not extending these 
provisions before they expire has been greatly damaging to the tax 
system and to taxpayers' ability to understand and rely on the law. The 
effect has been to weaken this country economically and competitively.
  Let us consider the research credit as an example. This is an 
important provision that has been in the law since the early 1980s, and 
it enjoys wide and bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.
  The research credit provides a strong incentive for businesses to 
increase their research and development activities in the United 
States. It probably is universally accepted that R&D investment is the 
lifeblood of high technology and is vital to the future of our economic 
leadership.
  We all know this, and almost to a person, the Members in this body 
would say they support a strong, vibrant, effective, and permanent 
research system. Why then have we allowed this credit to expire 13 
times?
  Here we are, once again, in mid-April and our research credit has 
been expired since the end of last year. The worst part is, while we 
all believe it will be extended eventually, everyone knows the credit 
will not be made permanent, and the likelihood it will be allowed to 
expire again is very high.
  In the meantime, many of our global trading partners have developed 
stronger and more permanent research incentives in an attempt to lure 
away research from our shores. They perceive a weakness in our 
incentive system, and they are moving to capitalize on this very 
weakness. It appears these actions are working because we are seeing 
the amount of research activity in the United States growing much more 
slowly than it is overseas. We simply cannot afford to lose to other 
countries our research and the jobs that research brings.
  Unfortunately, this problem goes way beyond the research credit. Each 
year, the Joint Committee on Taxation releases a list of expired and 
expiring tax provisions. The list for 2008 was 28 pages long and 
included an unbelievable 145 provisions. By contrast, the list released 
in 2003 was 13 pages and featured 71 provisions. Fifteen years ago, 
there would not have been much of a list at all.
  Our habit of adding new expiring provisions in the tax law is out of 
control and, worse, our refusal to deal with extending these provisions 
on a timely basis well before they expire is inexcusable.
  It is the obligation of the majority party in Congress to operate the 
legislative trains so they run on time and produce laws on which our 
people can at least rely, if not be proud of. While there is blame to 
spread between both parties in this area of expired tax provisions, 
which have such a degenerating effect on our already shaky tax system, 
we all know who is at fault for the current fiasco.
  I do not think anyone in this body will have trouble recalling the 
weeks-long standoff that occurred late last year over the so-called AMT 
patch. All of us, though, would probably prefer to forget it if we 
could.
  Instead of addressing the issue of alternative minimum tax and its 
expired thresholds early on, which would have lent a degree of 
certainty to an already obnoxious and insidious tax, the Democrats last 
year dithered on both the AMT patch and on the other soon-to-expire 
provisions.
  The result was a last-minute agreement on the AMT patch that put this 
year's tax filing season in jeopardy, greatly confused the American 
taxpayers, and left behind the other now-expired tax provisions. 
Perhaps most stunningly irresponsible was the fact that we took care of 
the AMT patch for 2007 only, and now we are facing the same scenario 
for this year. It must have been so much fun last year that we want to 
do it again in 2008.
  I am very aware of the arguments surrounding the question of whether 
extending these provisions should be offset, and I will address those 
on another day.
  Today, however, on the eve of America's most hated day, I call on my 
colleagues, and especially those on the other side of the aisle, to 
consider why this is so and what it is we are not doing that is the 
reason why the words ``April 15,'' ``IRS,'' and ``Congress'' are among 
the least popular in the lexicon.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized 
following the remarks of the Senator from Oregon.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Oregon.

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