While the squatter in the White House continues to spew daily bile about his favored status among taxpayers, more evidence that he is one lost puppy in the world of taxation:
Bush's tax vision seen as faulty
President Bush has repeatedly called for an overhaul of the nation's tax system during his reelection campaign, promising to clean up the ''complicated mess" of regulations and loopholes by leading a bipartisan effort to simplify the tax code.
''It's full of special-interest loopholes. It's a million pages long," Bush said earlier this month at a campaign event in Manchester, N.H. ''I'm going to call Republicans and Democrats together to do something about an antiquated tax code that needs to be changed."
But Bush's own policies have made the tax code more complicated than ever; taxpayers this year needed 28 minutes more on average to fill out 1040 income tax forms than they did in 2001 when Bush took office, according to the IRS. And Bush has endorsed a series of new tax cuts that would further complicate tax regulations before any simplification efforts could be attempted.
Each time we find a Rethug in office that crows about tax simplification, flat tax, national sales tax or some other tax simplification scheme, taxpayers are served up a shell game resulting in additional complexity which benefits tax lawyers and other tax consultants.
Doug Shackelford, professor of taxation at the University of North Carolina's business school, said that Bush has unquestionably made the tax code more complex and that he has offered plans that would complicate it further under a second Bush term. The fact that Bush is ready to sign the corporate tax bill -- Shackelford called it a ''doozy" of special-interest tax breaks -- means Bush does not seem ready to embrace wholesale reform yet, he said.
But, wait ... there is one thing of absolute certainty regarding the tax strategy of the Bushites - those receiving the greatest benefit from these tax overhauls - our friends in the upper income categories - will be able to afford those additional fees of their tax advisers who must interpret, plan and report the additional efficiencies created by Rethug tax simplification.