This issue of a complicated tax code goes back to the fact that nobody is reading bills that are passed.
Bills passed are not so long and awful that nobody is reading them.
They are intentionally long and complicated, precisely because they don’t want you to read them.
The same is true of the tax code.
It is an incomprehensible mess so that it can be changed without too many people noticing or understanding.
If we had, just for example, the fair tax, any changes would be transparent and easily accessible to all.
The self-serving prefer the cover of night.
Wouldn’t you?
Every lawmaker talks about the need to simplify the tax code, but we don’t mean it. Targeted tax breaks, loopholes, deductions, credits, deferments, write-offs, incentives, subsidies. Hell, these are some of the best ways we have to dole out favors to contributors.
-Congressman X, The Confessions Of Congressman X
