Bush Calls for Streamlining Tax Code

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TweetBush Calls for Streamlining Tax Code



By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday called streamlining and reforming the U.S. tax code an "essential task for our country," but offered few hints of how he intends to get it done.






Treasury Secretary John Snow said "everything's on the table," including possibly the popular home mortgage and charitable deductions and a former senator leading a tax-reform panel for Bush said that a national sales tax or flat tax also could be in the cards.


"It's a task that'll treat our taxpayers more fairly," Bush said at the end of a White House meeting with former Sens. Connie Mack, R-Fla., and John Breaux, D-La., the leaders of a nine-member panel the president appointed Friday to recommend reforms to the tax code.


"A simple code will make it easier on the taxpayers," Bush said. "But it's an important task in order to make sure the economic growth we are seeing in the United States continues forward. ... It seems like to me the tax code today discourages economic vitality and growth when you spend billions of hours filling out the forms."


Snow, talking to reporters later outside the White House, said the panel has been ordered "to take a hard look at everything."


Asked if that includes the home-mortgage and charitable deductions that millions of Americans use to reduce their federal tax liabilities, Snow gave no solid assurance that either would be kept. He merely noted that the panel has been told to "give due consideration to the importance of charitable deduction and the home mortgage deduction."


"And we will," Breaux said.


Another key question facing the panel is whether to accomplish reforms through changes to the existing tax code, or by scrapping it and moving to either a flat-tax or national sales tax system.


"I think it could be addressed in any of those," Mack said.


"Everything's on the table," he added, echoing Snow.


Mack and Breaux insisted that Bush had not given them any specific marching orders or tried to send them in any particular direction.


"The president was pretty clear in his comments with us — that we have great latitude, there is no end result that he was trying to lead us to, other than the fact that he said, you know, this is got to be simpler. ... The other objective they asked us to keep in mind is that it should be pro-growth, it should create greater opportunities for job creation," Mack said.


"I frankly begin the process without conclusions in my mind about what should take place," he added.


But though both former senators emphasized an open process that will draw in citizens and experts from around the country as they craft recommendations for a tax code overhaul, Snow made clear that the White House will have its hands in the effort the whole way.


"I don't think what they give us will be a total surprise to us," he said. "I look forward to having regular consultations."

[Klash]

TweetI'm all for the elimination of the IRS with the consumption tax (i.e. national sales tax)!