Joel Hefley: “I think this is the very reason for this Code. We have heard the view of the left-wing extremists about the Tax Code.…”

“I think this is the very reason for this Code. We have heard the view of the left-wing extremists about the Tax Code. They think the present Tax Code is just real spiffy. We have also heard the numbers: 17,000 pages, 7 million words, 54,000 changes, $134 billion in earlier compliance costs. Let me state that the last figure, $134 billion in compliance costs, imagine what our families, our small businesses, and even our big corporations could do with $134 billion they are spending on a hopelessly complex Federal Tax Code. I think this is the greatest legacy this Congress could leave the American people is to scrap the Code we have now, get rid of the IRS as we know it now. Everywhere I go, talk radio, town meetings, when this subject is brought up, there is disagreement on what the new tax system should be, but there is almost no disagreement about getting rid of the present system. No law-abiding citizen should be intimidated and made fearful by their government. Yet, if one gets an envelope in our mailbox, in our area it is from Ogden Utah, a little brown envelope from Ogden, Utah, we know it is from the IRS and we freeze in utter fear, no matter how honestly and carefully we have filled out our taxes, because we know we are probably about to get an audit. That is not right. We need a fair, we need a simple code that we can all understand and it will make us not fear our government. We need to pass this bill and we need to pass this rule.”