And Doug Shulman will not like it. Or Charlie Rangel. OR Tim Geithner.
The rumored Presidential hopeful simply would like to see the members of Congress pick up a copy of TurboTax from their local OfficeMax™, grab their W-2s and 1099s and crank out their own 1040.
“No help of an accountant, a lawyer or a tax specialist,” he said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“And if they can’t do it, we give them a certification they can go get some help. But I’d like every one of those individuals to have to do their own taxes every year and live with the mindless burdens we put on the American people.”
And before you get all “what’s good for the goose” on TP, he’s got a tax-form anecdote for you:
Pawlenty lamented that he recently filled out a W-9 that had four pages of instructions for a half-page form.
Now, hold it right there. Filling out a W-9 doesn’t exactly qualify as “preparing a tax return.” If you want to dive into the nitty gritty of any of these forms, then we’ll listen to your beef but don’t waste our time with “four pages of instructions for a half-page form.” That’s child’s play.
Pawlenty: No tax help for Congress [Politico via MinnPost]
The most noteworthy and damning moment of the GOP debate in Iowa Thursday was when the moderators asked the candidates to raise their hands if they would walk away from a deal that cut ten dollars from the deficit for every one dollar in tax increases. Every last person on stage said they’d reject that deal. [