The Devil is in the Tax Code

I will take this space today to explain the quickest and easiest way to bring honor back to public office.  Simplify the Tax Code and make sure it can never be tinkered with again.  99% of all lobbyists and 99% of all special interest campaign money can be traced back to changes and proposed changes in the tax code.  Since WW II, the size and complexity of the US Tax Code has exploded.  From 504 pages in 1939, it grew to 8,200 pages by 1945, the last year of the war.  Today?  In 2010, the tax code stands at 71,684 pages.  Think about that.  Why has that happened?  Because every time an industry or a group sees something they think will help them in the code, they spend the money needed to make that happen.  You know the old saying, "Follow the Money"?  Everyone says we need to get the money out of politics and elections, but no one knows how to do it.  Here is how.  Make the code simple and easy and pass a law that prevents it from creeping up even ONE SINGLE page because otherwise we would be right back here again in 10 years.  If elected officials don't have tax breaks to sell, the money will dry up.  It is that simple.  Take away ALL the deductions and engineer it so that the revenue collected is the same as it is today.  Set it up with 5-7 brackets and so that anyone making less than $40,000 (couples earning $75,000) pay no income tax.  And then keep it that way.

Wall Street spends billions influencing elections because of the tax breaks.  Business and trade associations spend millions influencing elections because of the tax breaks.  The debates never end in Washington because everyone has a vested interest in how the tax code gets changed every year.  Those are the facts.

You want another good reason to do this?  It would save this country a trillion dollars a year because we could stop paying tax attorneys to prepare our taxes and we could jettison 80% of the bloated, evil IRS.  In 1998, on sales of less than $1.5 million, my business paid more than $11,000 for tax preparation.  That is ridiculous.

We all know why this won't ever happen, right?  Why would Congress vote to eliminate the reason they ran for office?  Without this HUGE discretionary power, they become civil servants sent to Washington to represents their districts.  Instead, as it stands now, they are selling tax benefits from the day they are sworn in.  And it doesn't end when they leave office.  You know what happens then, right?  They take jobs with seven figure salaries to stay in Washington and lobby their former colleagues by passing the money from client to politician to keep the whole thing going.  It only gets worse. 

So, just smile at anyone that says we need federally financed elections because that will 'get the money and special interest out of politics.'  It is a ruse proposed by the people that want us to think we have control.  As long as Congress can manipulate the tax code to the benefit of small groups of people for large sums of money, we will never be able to take our government back from the special interests.