It's time for a flat and simple tax

Just in time for April 15, here is my tax reform plan. I call it the flat and simple tax. It would be an optional alternative plan.

You can continue to file the current Rube Goldberg tax contraption with forms like 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, schedules A, B, C, D. Q, X, Z. You could go to the tax firm like Dewey, Cheatham and Howe, hoping your refund is greater than preparer's fee. Or you can use the flat and simple tax.

You would add up all income from all sources, which would all be treated the same. Then a simple flat exemption per number in a household. Then a simple flat rate of around 18 percent. The flat and simple tax would be so easy even the socialist Neanderthals like Ted Kennedy, Ralph Nader and John Sweeney could do it.

Unfortunately, there are too many socialist Neanderthals in Congress to take the next step: a constitutional amendment.

The progressive income tax was the idea of that original Neanderthal Karl Marx. It is a tax that is economically destructive, socially destructive, and a violation of the basic American value of equal treatment under the law.

John J. Shelton

Hoffman Estates