Senator Feingold's response to the Abolishment Form.
May 15, 2008
Mr. Bruce G
Wisconsin
Dear Mr. G,
Thank you for contacting me about taxes. I appreciate hearing from you on this important topic.
There are a number of important tax issues that must be addressed, including the need to reform the entire tax code. In particular, Congress should consider measures to reduce the complexity of the tax code. Because the tax law confuses taxpayers and drives them to pay others to prepare their tax returns for them, the government has imposed a kind of tax on paying taxes. To make things simpler, many Americans forgo tax benefits to which they are legally entitled. For example, many people use the standard deduction, even though they would save money by itemizing their deductions. I look forward to continuing my work to simplify the tax code when tax reform legislation comes before the Senate.
As you may know, a number of tax provisions will expire in the next few years. I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind should the 110th Congress (2007-2008) consider legislation that addresses these provisions. When considering such proposals, I will continue to weigh any measure for its ability to stimulate the economy, how equitable it is in terms of providing benefits, and, perhaps most importantly, the long-term impact on the budget. We are now facing years of budget deficits and rapidly increasing government debt, and the federal government must focus on paying down the national debt in order to meet our growing financial commitments at home and abroad.
We need to return to the fiscally responsible policies that contributed to our economic growth by targeting wasteful programs, resisting new spending and new tax cuts that are not fully offset, and extending and reforming congressional budget rules. One of the main reasons I first ran for the U.S. Senate was to restore fiscal responsibility to the federal budget. Since I was first elected to the Senate in 1992, I have worked to bring Wisconsin's historic tradition of fiscal responsibility to Congress, an environment where wasteful spending too often dominates the budget process.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to do so again on this, or any other subject.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Feingold
United States Senator
http://feingold.senate.gov/contact.html
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