Sisyphus in the Senate

Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat, has not received the memo explaining that Congress can accomplish nothing in an election year or the year before one. He calls himself the Senate's designated driver, the one not running for president, so he has time to try legislating. He also is the Senate's Sisyphus, determined to roll the boulder of tax reform up Capitol Hill yet again.

The fact that Wyden's proposal, the Fair Flat Tax Act, seems radical is a measure of how foolishness has become conventional. Today, as when tax reform was accomplished in 1986, the objectives are threefold—although Wyden stresses only two.

One is simplification for its own sake. Americans spend an estimated 6.4 billion hours (more than the 6.3 million industrious people of Indiana work in a year) and more than $265 billion on compliance with a tax code that is six times longer than "War and Peace" (not counting 8 million words—20,000 pages—of regulations). And even with professional help, Americans cannot be confident that they have not broken the law concerning this basic civic duty.

Reform's second objective is to promote economic efficiency by broadening the base. That means eliminating deductions, exemptions, credits and other legislatively conferred favors in order to pay for revenue forgone by lowering rates. In 1986, Ronald Reagan, collaborating with Sen. Bill Bradley and other Democrats, did this. Alas, as Will Rogers said, both death and taxes are certain, but the difference is that death does not get worse every time Congress meets.

Since the 1986 simplification, Congress, a recidivist complicator, has added more than 14,000 new wrinkles to the tax code, about three for every working day. Some changes were made to confer favors on particular interests, some to encourage Americans to behave as Congress and presidents have thought they should—buying certain kinds of windows for their homes, driving hybrid cars and so on, and on, and on.

George W. Bush received an animal roar of approval when he told the 2004 Republican convention he would "simplify" the tax code's "complicated mess." He also promised measures to encourage less dependence on foreign energy and more access to college, health insurance, affordable homes and other delights—all measures involving tax exemptions, credits and other behavior-modification incentives.