Rand Paul takes a chainsaw to the tax code

Rand Paul really, really doesn’t like the tax code.

The Kentucky senator and Republican presidential candidate released a video Tuesday of him taking on the tax code with fire, a woodchipper and a chainsaw to a rock-and-roll rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner.”


“Hey, I’m Rand Paul, and I’m trying to kill the tax code — all 70,000 pages of it,” says a T-shirt clad Paul before directing viewers to his website to learn more about his proposals.

His website leads to a page asking visitors, “How would you kill the tax code?” Paul is in the background holding up a chainsaw in front of a pile of papers. It asks for name and contact information before users can vote for their tax destruction method of choice. (There is an opt-out section to continue onward without sharing contact information.)

Paul’s “Fair and Flat Tax” tax plan, which he introduced last month, would cut more than $2 trillion and replace the current multitiered tax system with a 14.5 percent tax across the board. It would also eliminate the payroll tax, gift and estate taxes, telephone taxes and duties and tariffs. Paul says his plan “would eliminate nearly every special-interest loophole.”