Max Baucus: “Just outside this Chamber are the likenesses of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and dozens of statesmen cast in bronze…”

“Just outside this Chamber are the likenesses of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and dozens of statesmen cast in bronze and marble. I often look to these individuals for inspiration and quotes when writing a speech. On a recent walk across the Capitol to meet my colleague, Congressman Dave Camp, I passed a giant statue of Andrew Jackson, our Nation's seventh President. It was Jackson who famously said--and I quote him The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality. Those words were spoken by Jackson in 1832. More than 180 years later, our Nation still struggles with a broken tax system. Our Tax Code today is inequitable, inefficient, and incomprehensible to the overwhelming majority of Americans. It contains nearly 4 million words--4 million. If someone were to try to read the entire code out loud, it would take them more than 18 uninterrupted days. Not only is the code long; it is maddeningly complex. There are 42 different definitions of a small business in the code--42. There are 15 different tax incentives for higher education--so many that the IRS had to publish a booklet to explain and simplify the higher education tax incentives. And that book--I have it with me--is 90 pages long--just on the education tax incentives. Here it is. I defy anybody to read it, let alone somebody trying to go to college or a parent trying to help his or her child go to college.…”