WASHINGTON — The two lead tax-writing lawmakers have teamed up and launched a campaign seeking the public’s input for a simpler tax code.
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., launched the website
“A simpler, fairer tax code will help families and it will help strengthen our economy,” Camp said in a statement. “But Washington doesn’t have all the answers. That is why we are joining together in a non-partisan way to invite you to weigh in on this debate. We want you, the American people, to share your story and your ideas about how our tax code should work.”
Both men held weekly meetings on tax reform and have working together to push their agenda. On Wednesday, several of the 11 Ways and Means tax reform working groups gave presentations to the full committee about their research and findings of specific areas of the tax code. On Monday the Joint Committee on Taxation released a 568-page report that summarized the current tax code as well as proposals the working groups received over the past few months to rewrite the code.
Baucus, who recently announced he will retire in 2014 after serving in Congress for nearly 40 years, said that tax reform is a top priority for him before he finishes his term. Camp’s term as committee chairman also expires in 2014.
“Over the past two years we’ve held more than 50 hearings and heard from hundreds of experts on how to fix the tax code ... now it’s time to hear from the most important stakeholders — the American people,” Baucus said in a statement. “We want to know what people think the nation’s tax system should look like and how we can make families lives easier.”
Camp and Baucus’ public pitch is based on former Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski’s “Write Rosty Campaign.” Rostenkowski, who was chairman during last major tax code overhaul in 1986, encouraged the public to send letters in support of tax reform and ultimately he received more than 75,000 letters and post cards.
