After just finishing my Nth (too many to count) tax season, its
time to sit back and hear the predictable chorus of how unfair our taxing
regime is and how it punishes successful people and the middle class while rewarding
the wealthy. In fact, a recent study of International tax systems by German
economists rated the U.S. 94th out of 100. At least we beat
Venezuela!
While most reasonable people will agree that some form of
tax system is essential to modern society, that’s about where the commonality ends.
There are those who feel that a flat tax system, or a national sales tax, or
higher rates for the wealthy, or lower rates for the wealthy, or some other
variant, would all be better than our present system. A column in yesterday’ s OC
Register discussed how the capital gains tax break is purportedly counter-productive and unfairly
favors the wealthy. There is no shortage of ideas as to how to fix our tax
system, but I submit to you that the system may not be the problem. I believe
it is the administrator (government) that is the problem.
The Lord ’s Prayer is 56 words long. The Gettysburg Address is 226 words long. The Ten
Commandments are 297 words. But the Internal
Revenue Code? FOUR MILLION WORDS LONG.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, Congress isn’t the solution, it
is the problem.
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