WASHINGTON—Total repeal and replacement of the current Tax Code remains the chief legislative goal of the National Federation of Independent Business, according to NFIB President Jack Faris. ``We are taxed, both as individuals and as corporations, at a higher rate today than at any time in our history, peacetime or war,'' Mr. Faris said at a Jan. 20 press conference.
Mr. Faris had kind words for current Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti, himself a former small-business man who is trying, Mr. Faris said, to make the taxation process friendlier to small business.
In a recent meeting with Mr. Rossotti, however, Mr. Faris stressed the NFIB's position that the current Tax Code is too complicated to be reformed effectively.
``I told him he's doing a good job with lipstick and rouge, but it doesn't change the fact that he's putting it on a pig,'' he said.
Dan Danner, NFIB vice president of government relations, said the federation isn't as pessimistic as other Washington observers about the legislative year—which is starting off with President Clinton's impeachment trial in the Senate.
``Can anything happen in the 106th Congress?'' Mr. Danner asked. ``We believe very strongly that it can.'' Particularly, the NFIB will be ``pushing for health-care rights the same for small business as for large corporations,'' he said.
The federation wants not only for small businesses to band together to buy health insurance—an option currently available only to larger companies—but also for individuals to gain the right to deduct health-insurance costs.
``There's no reason your employer can deduct those costs, but you can't as an individual,'' Mr. Danner said.