Here's an issue that Kerry and Edwards should be shouting from the rooftops. There are two Americas: one in which people pay taxes, the other where they don't.
The IRS isn't collecting taxes from tax cheats to the tune of almost 300 billion dollars.
Roughly one in five taxpayers "now believes it's acceptable to cheat on their taxes," the board said, based on its own research, while the number of revenue agents and other enforcement workers at the IRS has declined by 36 percent since 1996.
"Most disturbing of all, the amount of money which taxpayers legitimately owe, but won't pay and goes uncollected, is a staggering $300 billion," the report said.
You'd think that at a time
when the deficit is 445 billion dollars, you'd want to increase your revenue.
The IRS collects 20 dollars for every dollar it spends on compliance. Yet
Dennis Hastert wants to abolish the IRS. What's behind all this? Who's doing the evading? Most people have their taxes deducted from their paychecks, which makes it almost impossible to cheat.
But you know how the rich is -- they got accountants.
Cracking down on cheaters is fair and it would allow us to cut taxes for the honest or fund needed programs. This is a can't-lose proposition. Can we get some heat on this, please?