We interrupt our usual support for the social welfare state for our annual commemoration of Tax Day with this comment from Senator Warren G. Magnuson (1905-1989), who represented the State of Washington in Congress for 44 years, rising to become chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations in 1977.
Senator Magnuson famously described the Internal Revenue Code as follows: "The first 9 pages of the Internal Revenue Code define income; the remaining 1,100 pages spin the web of exceptions and preferences."
Our jovial support of the social welfare state will return tomorrow.