WASHINGTON, D.C. – As April 15th approaches, the time of year when taxpayers feel most inclined to lambast the Internal Revenue Service, it is imperative that Americans pay attention to the real problem – the tax code the IRS is contracted by Congress to enforce, according to Bruce Bartlett, NCPA senior fellow and tax expert.
"Congress seems to be unable to move forward on fundamental tax reform," says Bartlett. "Rather than choose between the flat tax and the national sales tax, Congressional leaders have decided to punt. Instead, they got behind a Quixotic effort simply to abolish the tax code by December 31, 2001, without specifying what, if anything would take place."
Drawing from experience as former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at Treasury, White House Senior Policy Analyst and Joint Economic Committee Executive Director, Bartlett favors adoption of a flat tax system. In addition, Mr. Bartlett calls for immediate abolishment of the marriage tax penalty and the estate tax. He has recently authored several NCPA studies on tax reform, including "The Marriage Tax Penalty," which details the need for equal tax treatment of all individuals, married or single, while retaining tax breaks for parents with children, and "The Case for Abolishing Death Taxes."
Bartlett recently appeared as the featured guest on Bob Novak's Insight, in addition to CNN's Crossfire, CNNfn, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, The Wall Street Report, Nightly Business Report, Bloomberg Business News, CNBC's Business News, Fox Morning News, among others, to discuss economic and tax issues. A syndicated columnist, Bartlett has been published in Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Times, Investor's Business Daily, Detroit News and San Diego Union Tribune. He is quoted in columns across the country.
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