to cope with a rising amount of uncollected taxes, $156 billion in 1994 (Donlan, 1994, p. 50). When he was still a Senator, Lloyd Bentsen criticized the IRS for manifesting a "bully mentality" (Schnepper, 1994, p. 37). The IRS has become too intrusive in the private lives of many taxpayers and is often arbitrary and overbearing in its approach to them (McNamee, 1995, p. 85).
As to the fairness of the system, Pierre S. du Pont, a member of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform headed by Jack Kemp, said: "The tax code as it exists today is a politicized method of unequally extracting income from people who have earned it and transferring it to people who haven't but whom the politicians in Congress think have superior claim to it" (Lewis, 1996, p. A 17).
The basic concept underlying a flat tax is that all or almost all taxpayers, regardless of the size or source of their taxable incomes, would be assessed income taxes at the same rate. The principal differences among the various versions of the flat tax which have been proposed are the rate of tax and the types of exemptions and deductions which would be allowed. The flat tax proposal of Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Senator Shelby and the one advanced by Steve Forbes contemplate a 17 percent rate which would be phased in over three years. Jack Kemp proposes a 19 percent rate (Armey, 1995, p. 22; Passell, 1996, p. C 1; and Kemp, 1996 D 15). The flat tax first proposed by Hoover Institute economists Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rabushka contains very few exemptions and deductions; but those sponsored by various politicians incorporate deductions for the home interest mortgage and charitable contributions. Hall-Rabushka and Armey-Shelby would permit business capital expenditures to be written off immediately. Armey-Shelby would also eliminate the estate tax. House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt has proposed a new tax which he labels a flat tax...