Wyden Calls Administration Plan to Abandon Tax Reform BadJudgment

Wyden and Emanuel’s bill, the “Fair Flat Tax Act of 2007,” allows every taxpayer to file taxes on a simplified, one-page 1040 form, collapses individual tax brackets from the current six down to three and sets one, flat corporate rate.

(Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today said the Bush Administration was turning its back on millions of American taxpayers just one day after Tax Day in announcing it was abandoning much-needed reform of the nation’s confusing and special-interest heavy tax code.

News of the Administration’s decision to walk away from tax reform came during today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing at which U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson – responding to questions from Wyden – stated, “There isn’t a major tax reform proposal being put forward right now, and I don’t see that on the dockets in the near future,” according to Reuters.

“If you loved filing your taxes yesterday, you’ll love the next two years of the same old bureaucratic water torture,” Wyden said. “Failing to clean up and simplify the tax code is just bad judgment on the Administration’s part. President Bush has made it very clear in the past that tax reform was one of his priorities. Now he is bowing down to special interests rather than protecting American taxpayers. That’s very bad news for all of us.”

On Monday, Wyden and U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) introduced comprehensive tax reform legislation that contains major tax relief for America’s middle class by making the 1.4-million word U.S. income tax code simpler, flatter and fairer.

The plan triples the standard deduction, providing tax relief to most Americans and saving countless hours in tax preparation for most people who will no longer need to itemize their deductions. It gets rid of numerous special interest loopholes that are exploited by the fortunate few at the expense of the many. It also ends the disparate treatment of work and wealth under the current tax code by getting rid of the preference for capital gains and dividends over wage and salary income.

Wyden said simplifying the code has other benefits: it will be harder for people to cheat the system and easier for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to catch those that do. Currently, there is a tax gap between taxes owed and collected of over $300 billion per year. The Fair Flat Tax Act can make a significant dent in that, raising revenue from a source that won’t increase taxes.

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Hank Ruark April 20, 2007 11:30 am (Pacific time)

Ah, Rosy, "there you go again!" IF one "avoids liberal historians" one misses true story of where democracy came from and why. Surely slavery existed prior to ours-here, but that in no way applies to human rights, even though it took some long years to break out here. Re "contemporary values" words, you choose to live by 18th Century rules 'n regs ? If so, watch out that sword doesn't stick you right in the...

Rosenberg April 20, 2007 9:05 am (Pacific time)

LaMarche. So what re: slave owning! Was it against the law? Of course not. You should never apply contemporary values to history, it skews the interpretation. We all have ancestors who were slaves and who were mightily oppressed, and vice versa. We as a nation overcame that situation, but not most other locations outside of Western Civilization. Best way to learn history, avoid liberal historians! Don't dwell on the negative...

S.LaMarche; April 19, 2007 8:24 pm (Pacific time)

with so many authors of "history", how do we really know what the founders did?, what they meant? From my view within the states it appears it was mostly written by them, they were human beings escaping the tyrants of their "old world", reestablishing their lives., and many owned slaves as I recall., indentured or outright. So my latest decade is from the outside reading history from those out of and not from the U.S.,(it started as an "opreation" Rosenberg, a long story, so don't start in on me), and it's more often than not radically different. So now I think for myself and question athority as a natural.I hope that's not too liberal a concept., I think it was Vonnegut that said that. Did he "sacrifice"?

RC April 19, 2007 5:48 pm (Pacific time)

Those who have sacrificed understand my meaning. Appreciate the fact that you do not, thanks for making my point with your characteristic brevity...LOL.

Hank Ruark April 19, 2007 3:35 pm (Pacific time)

R-C: Happens had ancestor then-writing, so at least that much in common, along with my American citizenship...which is only license to speak needed in our democracy, even yet. Re sacrifice, how defined, please ? You ready for ID, too, or simply wind-release ?

Retired Contractors April 19, 2007 12:20 pm (Pacific time)

Founding Father's had nothing in common with you Mr. Ruark. They knew of sacrifice!

Hank Ruark April 19, 2007 5:32 am (Pacific time)

B-H: Don't be allathathard on yr self...most historians already agree with your evaluation. As citizens assess what's now happening to nearly every life, from impacts of his own actions as well as those of his distorted-view staffers, we will see whether the U.S. can still summon will and wisdom to apply the Constitutional remedy our Founders built-in for us.

BUSH HATER April 18, 2007 6:37 pm (Pacific time)

Does anyone really expect anything postive from this man? Maybe when his parents die he will finally have to face reality and grow-up, but then he still has his brothers, daughters, political and business associates and that "seemingly sweet" (I say that sarcastically), wife of his. The rocks in his head fits the holes in hers. Poor Laura and the trauma of jumping a stop sign and killing a fellow student when she was young. Give me a break Matt Lauer with your a** kissing "Headliners and Legends". She could have been drunk and you would never find out the truth especially this long after the incident.

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Wyden Calls Administration Plan to Abandon Tax Reform BadJudgment

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