So here we go again: it’s Tax Day in America.
The weekend news broadcasts were flooded with tax stories.
One stated that Americans spend billions of dollars just to fill out their tax forms each year.
In another story, a reporter interviewed people in the line at the post office on Saturday.
Another spoke of how Americans spend an average of 52 hours— just to fill out their tax forms.
That’s a whole lot of time spent just to hand over money to the federal government.
For decades Americans have grumbled, swallowed hard, and sent in their taxes on the National Day of Doom, April 15th.
Over the last 20 years, economists Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have each had easy ways to simplify the Tax Code.
Dr. Sowell suggested making Tax Day the same day as Election Day. That would force Congress to simplify it.
Dr. Williams suggested a 10% flat tax. He explained that “if 10% of my income is good enough for the Methodist church, it should be more than enough money for the federal government.”
The problem with tax reform is that your friendly neighborhood congressman really has no interest in simplifying the tax system. Each year, the federal government sucks more than $4 trillion dollars out of American taxpayers. And even with all that money, Congress still spends more than it receives. Your congressman is not giving up that much money, no matter how much suffering you do to hand it over to him.
If Americans are really serious about fixing the confusing, frustrating, expensive, and headache-inducing tax forms, there is a simple solution:
Require ALL elected officials (the president, vice president, senators, congressman, and all their staffs), and congressionally appointed officials (including the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, the Secretary of Defense… ALL one of them with any fiduciary responsibility) to fill out their tax returns: ON CAMERA.
Then make them publish it on YouTube.
Every one of these government officials can have an accountant, a lawyer, or even their own mom sitting in the room, helping them fill out their tax return. But they MUST do the entire process on YouTube.
I promise you that real Tax Reform and Simplification would be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President within a single month.
–The Beltway Bandit
The Beltway Bandit 