"Cutting Spending and Waste will help economy," Schatz says.

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) commemorates Tax Day 2003 by calling for the largest possible tax cut.  Even though the House and Senate passed different tax cuts in their respective fiscal 2004 budget resolutions, Congress has the ability to pass the President’s entire $726 billion proposal.

"There is no reason why Congress can not implement the President’s tax package,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Today, taxpayers continue to pay high taxes to a government that provides a poor return on their investment by wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on programs that are duplicate, inefficient, and wasteful.  By eliminating waste, the federal government can afford a tax cut, reduce the deficit, and create economic growth.  It’s possible for the federal government to have its cake and eat it too, rather than smashing it in the face of taxpayers.”

The Internal Revenue Code has 5.5 million words covering 17,000 pages.  As of June 2000, the U.S. Treasury had issued an additional 20,000 pages of regulations and clarifications.  The tax code is estimated to cost individuals and businesses more than $200 billion in 2003 in compliance costs.  Additionally, businesses will spend 3.4 billion man-hours doing their taxes, while 1.7 billion man-hours will be spent by individuals.  Over half of individual filers have other help prepare their taxes.

CAGW has identified $1.3 trillion over five years in waste, fraud, and abuse to be eliminated from the budget immediately.  Part of that waste was illustrated by CAGW’s release last week of the 2003 Congressional Pig Book, with a record 9,362 projects and $22.5 billion tucked away in the 13 appropriations bill.

“That $22.5 billion is equal to the taxes paid by 1.9 million American families.  This massive ‘porkfest’ is the clearest sign that federal levies are too high, and every possible step should be taken to ensure that the big-spenders in Washington get their hands on fewer taxpayer dollars.  Every taxpayer should be demanding that their elected officials in Washington end this waste, make the tax cuts permanent, and scrap the entire tax code.  That’s the only way to improve what taxpayers are getting for their hard-earned money,” Schatz concluded.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.