We keep re-electing politicians who expand IRS code for their benefit
To the editor:
Each April, you print an editorial criticizing our dreadful income tax code and strongly recommend simplification. While your assessment of the code in Monday's editorial was right on target, you left the most important questions unasked and unanswered.
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The questions are: How did we get saddled with this mess, and will it ever get better? The first question can be answered with three words: corruption, corruption and corruption. The answer to the second is no -- not without cleaning out Congress.
The two major political parties, who have this country in a death grip, work together as a well-oiled machine in exploiting the tax code. Over 70 years, they have passed thousands of new tax bills that reward their friends and sponsors, punish their enemies and line their pockets with bribes euphemistically called campaign contributions.
Those who created the original tax code could not have dreamed what a wonderful gift they had bestowed upon their successors. What would be a Frankenstein monster for the rest of us turned out to be the goose that lays golden eggs -- the gift that keeps on giving -- for Congress and the administration. Most important of all, it provides the power, influence, and financial resources to guarantee virtual immortal incumbency.
The small handful of truly principled, ethical members of Congress who have tried to reform the tax code have had little success. Most have stopped trying. A few, like Dick Armey, have left Congress in disgust.
So who is to blame? Go look in the mirror. We consistently ignore third-party reform candidates and continue to re-elect the same old Democratic and Republican hacks year after year. These are people who want to cash in on the gravy train, not end it! Nowhere is the old saw, "people get the government they deserve," more applicable than to our current income tax nightmare.
If you want to see change, vote for anyone but an incumbent in the next election and, by all means, support the imposition of term limits on all politicians in the future.
