GOP Takes Anti-IRS Drive on Road

Kicking off a recess campaign of tax-related events, House Speaker Gingrich met with constituents Saturday in Roswell, Ga., to hear complaints about the IRS and take suggestions for remaking the tax system, while Ways and Means Chairman Archer and Majority Whip DeLay held a tax reform event in Houston, and GOP Conference Chairman John Boehner of Ohio and Reps. Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Rob Portman and Steve Chabot of Ohio discussed the issue at a town hall session in Blue Ash, Ohio.

IRS reform legislation has already passed the House with broad bipartisan support and awaits action in the Senate Finance Committee. But the House GOP leadership believes this public relations campaign can lend momentum to the broader tax reform efforts expected to get under way next year. And, judging from the reaction in Ohio, Georgia and Texas, Republicans continue to score points on the tax issue, despite President Clinton's belated embrace of IRS reform and bipartisan support for this year's $95 billion tax cut package.

During the Ohio event, an IRS official in the audience was booed, while Chabot elicited strong applause when he asked the crowd of about 300 whether tax simplification and IRS reform were needed, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. In Houston, the comments of an IRS collection agent who appeared on stage were drowned out by cries of "baloney," the Houston Chronicle reported.

The Republican members were less than specific about the direction tax reform would take once the legislative process gets underway--reflecting divisions within the GOP over which alternative tax structure to embrace.

While the audience in Georgia gave its loudest cheers to speakers who favored a national sales tax, Gingrich noted such an approach would require the existence of a national "revenue service," and perhaps result in more off-the-books sales, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

In Texas, Archer pushed his plan for abolishing the IRS and replacing the income tax with a national sales tax, but DeLay drew jeers from the crowd when he suggested reforming rather than terminating the IRS, the Chronicle reported. In Ohio, Portman and Bunning said they expect tax reform will result in some combination of a flat tax and sales tax. Bunning said as many as five different proposals will be on the table.