A Taxing Issue

So Obama has had some trouble lately with his nominees for several key positions because of their tax problems. A catchy phrase of late has become, “Do as I say and not as I do,” as it related to matters of taxes, and the belief of many conservatives is that this is simply a liberal trait to agree to raise taxes to fund their projects knowing full well that they won’t be paying them anyway. This however is not a new issue, and members of Congress on both sides have had tax related issues lately, specifically not paying enough in taxes or failing to disclose liabilities that would incur them a higher taxable income.

One angle to this whole taxing issue that I’ve not heard and thought I would have by now is, maybe it’s not an issue with the payers, or actually the lack of payers, but rather perhaps it’s a problem with the tax code itself. If the people who write the tax codes into law via legislation can’t figure out how to follow the rules, how are we the common man expected to follow the rules?

When John Carter (R-TX) introduced the “Rangel Rule” last week, he should have introduced instead the “Geitner Rule” and sought to abolish the current tax code, for one simple enough for our elected officials to follow. If the GOP is truly interested in reducing the size of government they should start with the IRS and scrap the current tax code for one that doesn’t require an entire government agency to administer. If that means instituting a flat tax or some other method of taxation that doesn’t require a government agency and an entire industry to help the average American to file their taxes then so be it.