Cliff Stearns: “I rise in support of the Tax Code Termination Act. Really, when you think about it, this is a rather momentous day, the…”

“I rise in support of the Tax Code Termination Act. Really, when you think about it, this is a rather momentous day, the fact that the United States Congress would come together and have a vote on this matter. Whether we are against this or for it, this is a very significant period in our history to be able to come on the House floor and say we are against the present Tax Code and we wish to change it. It is important to relate to the constituents and to Members that there is an exception in this for Social Security and Medicare. So when we are eliminating the Tax Code, we are not attacking Social Security. We are not attacking Medicare. Be that as it may, the last tax decreases in this country provided 300 changes to the Tax Code. If all of us on the Republican side and on the Democrat side go out and say, oh, we have decreased taxes, but at the same time, changed the Tax Code 300 times, what have we done? If we do that year after year after year, it is going to get impossible. In fact, that is where we are today. It is literally impossible to do our taxes. We are starting the debate by saying, okay, let us do away with the Tax Code by 2002 and replace it with a sales tax or a flat tax or a combination thereof. What is wrong with that? If anybody is going to vote against this, they are voting against open discussion to have a new system.”