[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 53 (Thursday, April 15, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2340-S2341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                TAX DAY

  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, today is April 15, perhaps the most 
dread day of the year for the American taxpayer. At some point today, 
millions of people will engage in a painful, complicated, and uniquely 
American exercise: filing their Federal tax returns.
  According to the Tax Foundation, Americans worked well over 3 months 
this year--over 3 months; from January 1 to April 9--before they had 
earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the Federal, 
State, and local levels. Congress has succeeded in establishing a 
pattern of taxing and spending to the point that the average American 
must work a full 99 days of the year just to pay their taxes.
  Sadly, while we continue to spend and spend and spend here in our 
Nation's capital, the tax burden carried by the average American gets 
heavier and heavier and heavier.
  On September 12, 2008, in Dover, NH, then-candidate Obama said this:

       I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making 
     less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. 
     Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital 
     gains taxes, not any of your taxes.

  Another interesting quote from then-candidate Obama.
  According to data released yesterday by the House Ways and Means 
Committee, since January of 2009, President Obama and the congressional 
Democrats have enacted into law gross tax increases totaling more than 
$670 billion or more than $2,100 for every man, woman, and child in the 
United States of America. A list of tax increases includes at least 14 
violations of the President's pledge not to raise taxes on Americans 
earning less than $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married 
couples.

  For example, there is a new tax on individuals who don't purchase 
government-approved health insurance. There is a new tax on employers 
who fail to fully comply with government health insurance mandates. 
There is a new 40-percent excise tax on certain high-cost health plans. 
There is a new ban on the purchase of over-the-counter drugs using 
funds from FSAs, HSAs, and HRAs. There is an increase from 7.5 percent 
to 10 percent of income, the threshold after which individuals can 
deduct out-of-pocket medical expenses. There is a new $2,500 annual cap 
on FSA contributions. There is a new annual tax on health insurance. 
There is a new annual tax on brand-name pharmaceuticals. There is a new 
2.3-percent excise tax on certain medical devices. There is a new 10-
percent tax on indoor UV--ultraviolet--tanning services. There is a new 
tax on insured and self-insured health plans, and it is double the 
penalty for nonqualified health savings accounts distributions. There 
is a tobacco tax increase. There are Federal unemployment surtaxes 
which have been extended through 2011, and there are more and more on 
the list.
  In addition to the financial burden associated with all of the tax 
increases heaped upon the American people in the past year, taxpayers 
face the added anxiety of a complicated, antiquated, and oversized Tax 
Code. Let's look at what Americans go through every year in order to 
meet the April 15 deadline as reported by National Review Online.

       As April 15 approaches like an incoming monsoon, millions 
     of Americans brace for the pain of writing checks to the IRS. 
     Even worse, this annual discomfort begins even earlier, as 
     taxpayers generate a cyclone of documents just to calculate 
     their tax liability. America's excruciatingly complex tax-
     compliance regime deepens the aggravation of sending hard-
     earned cash to Washington for virtual incineration by 
     Congress.

  Completing tax reforms required 7.75 billion hours of human labor in 
the 2008 fiscal year, according to the latest reginfo.gov data. That 
roughly equals 3.7 million people--or everyone in Los Angeles--filling 
out IRS forms for 40 hours every week, all year, without vacations.

       That involves more workers than those at the Fortune 500's 
     five biggest employers--

  The National Taxpayers Union's David Keating concludes in a 
forthcoming report--

     more than everybody at Wal-Mart, UPS, McDonald's, IBM and 
     Citigroup combined.

  Keating also found that:

       Individual taxpayers would devote some 2.3 billion hours 
     grappling with the income tax in 2010 at an equivalent labor 
     cost of $71.4 billion. Add to this the $31.5 billion that 
     individual taxpayers will cough up for tax software, 
     accounting services, photocopying, and other compliance-
     related expenses. All told, individual taxpayers will spend 
     $103 billion to determine how much more money they must pump 
     into the Beltway.
       Meanwhile, the IRS Web site now offers 1,909 different 
     documents, which is up from 1,770 last year. These include 
     the riveting form 8833: Treaty-Based Return Position 
     Disclosure Under Section 6114, or 7701(b). And don't miss 
     Form 990-W: Estimated Tax on Unrelated Business Taxable 
     Income for Tax-Exempt Organizations. This year's basic 1040 
     tax return includes 76 lines and 174 pages of instructions, 
     up from 68 lines and 52 pages in 1985.
       Last year, the National Taxpayers Union calculated that 
     U.S. corporations spent $159.4 billion on tax compliance, 
     equal to 54 percent of corporate income tax revenue. In 2008, 
     General Electric's tax returns droned on for some 24,000 
     pages.

  It is abundantly clear we are on a path to fiscal disaster. David 
Walker, the former head of the Government Accountability Office and 
current president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and one 
of the most respected budget experts in the Nation, recently said:

       The financial condition of the United States has 
     deteriorated dramatically in recent years. Importantly, our 
     primary fiscal threat is not today's deficit and debt levels, 
     but the structural deficits and escalating debt burdens that 
     will occur after the economy has recovered, unemployment is 
     down, the ``wars'' are over, and the recent crises have 
     passed. These large and growing structural deficits and the 
     tens of trillions in unfunded federal government promises 
     that drive them serve to threaten the future of our country 
     and our families. We must begin to take steps now to put our 
     Federal financial house in order. In addition, we must 
     achieve some meaningful reforms within the next three years 
     in order to help avoid a ``crisis of confidence'' that could 
     have much worse economic consequences for America, Americans, 
     and the world than the recent housing and financial crisis.

  Today, all over America, there will be people demonstrating at tea 
parties, at gatherings, at organizations, at coffee shops, at 
restaurants, at places of business at the water cooler. People all over 
America will be talking today about this incredible, complex, 
difficult, burdensome system we have laid on the American people. It is 
fundamentally unfair and fundamentally incomprehensible to average 
citizens.
  Most citizens, after they file their tax returns, will now live in 
some concern, if not grave concern, that they may have made a mistake 
because of this incredibly complex document from the agency we call the 
IRS and the tax bills we have. These American citizens can't be 
positive--even if they have gone to an accountant--that they will not 
be audited and then subject to further penalties.
  We need to clean up the Tax Code. We need to stop the spending. We 
need to restore the confidence of the American people. There is a 
veritable uprising going on out there. It is a peaceful one. It is all 
over America. On a day like today, when they see their taxes have 
increased by some $670 billion just in the last year, this will fuel 
the fire that is spreading across America and will culminate this 
coming November.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COBURN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

[[Page S2341]]



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