Love that tax code

Re “Flat-tax and spend GOP,” Opinion, Dec. 1

Michael Kinsley fails to emphasize the outrageous costs of running the present tax bureaucracy. In order to pay taxes, millions of middle-class Americans spend countless hours collecting records and paying exorbitant fees to tax preparers just to figure out what they owe. What a waste of time and money when most taxpayers would gladly pay their share directly.

It is idiotic to have a system that forces millions of Americans to spend valuable time and money just to find out what they owe the government. For these Americans who conscientiously pay their taxes, the present inefficient system results in double taxation.

Kenneth Carter

Laguna Beach

Why can’t Kinsley lay off businesses? He scolds: “They can pay taxes under the current rules -- with some juicy new breaks added from the big- and small-business wish lists.”

Perhaps Kinsley forgets the heart of this nation rests in its small (and large) businesses. Perhaps those of Kinsley’s ilk yearn for that great big mother of an employer, the federal government, to even all things out for scribes like him and the balance of the great unwashed. The balance of Kinsley’s argument is pure socialist rhetoric.

Stuart Weiss

Beverly Hills