Bush Names Bipartisan Tax Panel

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

11 January 2005

US President George W. Bush has named former Senators Connie Mack and John Breaux to lead the bipartisan panel tasked with exploring reform of the US tax code.

In a ceremony at the White House last week, Bush announced that former Florida Republican Mack, the panel’s chairman, and former Louisiana Democrat Breaux, the vice chairman, would look for recommendations on ensuring that the tax code "encourages economic vitality and growth," rather than stifling entrepreneurs and burdening business.

"It seems like to me the tax code today discourages economic vitality and growth when you spend billions of hours filling out the forms,” Bush remarked.

According to Mack, the President has given the tax reform panel “great latitude” to explore different options that will lead to a simplification of the tax code. However, a consensus is emerging among many experts and commentators that the tax reforms will not bring about fundamental change, such as the introduction of a flat tax, but will seek to tidy up the code.

President Bush also named the other members of the panel, drawn from academia, business and former lawmakers. These include: former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti, a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group; Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab; William Frenzel, a former congressman and guest scholar at the Brookings Institution; Elizabeth Garrett, a law professor at the University of Southern California; Edward Lazear, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at Stanford University business school; and former Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris.

The panel will report to Treasury Secretary John Snow, who welcomed the opportunity to work with “some of our nation's brightest minds.”

Mr Snow added: “Reforming our tax code to give Americans a tax system that fosters economic growth and is fairer and simpler will be a historic effort. I look forward to working with this group of extraordinarily distinguished individuals to make recommendations to help achieve this important goal.”

Recommended