Furious George is on the stump talking up his plan for a simplified tax code in a second term. He's talking about the current tax laws which are over one million pages long. Keeping that in mind, why is he preparing to sign the new special interest boondoggle that is coming his way? The new bone being tossed out to special interest groups is a 633 page whopper that helps those poor struggling businesses such as Oracle, HP, Eli Lilly, oil companies, accounting firms, tobacco farmers and on and on. Forget about what Bush says, look at what he does.
"It is the worst example of the influence of special-interest groups I have ever seen," said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who denounced a decision to include a $10 billion buyout program for tobacco farmers, but drop a provision that would have put the Food and Drug Administration in charge of regulating tobacco products.All of this also reminds me of how Reagan wanted to simply the tax code. How long did that venture last before special interests jumped all over it and made it even more complicated than it was? Why should we expect anything different this time?
