RADICAL REFORM OF TAX CODE IS GOOD GOAL

U.S. Rep. Jim Talent, R-St. Louis, visited Cape Girardeau recently to address the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee. Talent occupies the key position of chairman of the House Small Business Committee. As such, he offered many insights into the major issues Congress will face when its members reconvene next month. Among these are the subjects of Internal Revenue Service reform and radical reform of the tax code it enforces.

A version of a bill addressing the former has already passed the House and awaits Senate action. It contains a number of laudatory provisions, including one that will shift the burden of proof from the taxpayer to the IRS in most cases.

As for the latter objective -- radical reform of the tax code -- possible achievement of this worthy goal is now enhanced by a stratagem Talent embraced: Sunsetting, or eliminating, the current tax code by a date certain, possibly as soon as Dec. 31, 2000, or the following year. This goal was proposed earlier by the National Federation of Independent Business, which this summer launched a national petition campaign to achieve it.

This has much to commend it, as pressure will likely build to replace the code with something better. Something better would be a code that looked a lot more like Talent's goal: A vastly simplified tax form and either some form of a flat tax or a consumption tax.

Talent mentioned the year 2000 as a goal, but this may or may not be attainable with Bill Clinton in the White House. It may take another president, elected that year and inaugurated the next, before such an ambitious goal can actually be achieved. Meanwhile, Talent and other congressional leaders should keep the pressure on. This historic goal just may be attainable.