[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5427]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               TAX REFORM

  (Mr. SOUTHERLAND asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SOUTHERLAND. Mr. Speaker, it's tax week. As you know, that means 
that Americans' heads are chock-full of all kinds of numbers. We've 
done all kinds of itemizations, deductions, and calculations in our 
personal finances just to make sure that we know how much we are going 
to hand over to Uncle Sam. Let me share with you some more numbers.
  How about $168 billion? That's how much our fellow Americans spend 
each year just to make sure they comply with our overcomplicated Tax 
Code. Just how complicated are the tax rules in this country? Well, 
here is another number--4 million. That's how many words there are in 
the U.S. Tax Code. There are 4,500 words in the U.S. Constitution. 
There are 775,000 words in the Bible. Yet there are 4 million in our 
Tax Code.
  What does this all add up to?
  It means that our current tax system is broken. We need fundamental, 
comprehensive tax reform to make our Tax Code fairer and simpler for 
all Americans. That is the House Republican plan.

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