

(Note that all of the following quotes were extracted from the representatives' official press releases and statements as found on www.house.gov)

U.S. Representative John Hostettler (R-IN)



"the Internal Revenue Code and regulations add up to one million words and is nearly seven times the length of the Bible" U.S. Representative Rob Portman (R-OH)



"The income tax code and its associated regulations contain almost 5.6 million words -- seven times as many words as the Bible. Taxpayers now spend about 5.4 billion hours a year trying to comply with 2,500 pages of tax laws...." U.S. Representative J.C. Watts, Jr. (R-OK)



"The heart of IRS abuse lies in the existing tax code. Most of the folks who work for the IRS are good people just trying to do their job, but they are caught in a bad, overextended tax system. At 3,458 pages, twice the length of the Bible, it's impossible for the average taxpayer to know, understand, and accurately apply its provisions. The length is twice that of the Bible! Even tax experts cannot do so reliably." U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL)



"With its 6,000 pages and 500 million words, the complexity of our tax code is the prime source of frustration and anger felt by millions of Americans toward their government." U.S. Representative Bill Archer (R-TX)



"The Internal Revenue Code and regulations now come in at one million words and 9000 pages." U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)



"The Bible, the guide of our lives, is 1,291 pages and contains 774,746 words. But the Tax Code and its regulations which are referred to by some as, 'a person's worst nightmare come true' is 9,471 pages and over 7 million words." U.S. Representative Vito Fossella (R-NY)



"the tax code runs 17,000 pages and contains a mind-boggling 5.5 million words. By way of comparison, War and Peace is only 1,444 pages and the Bible checks in at 1,291 pages." U.S. Representative Jim DeMint (R-SC)



"The federal tax code with its 44,000 pages, 5.5 million words, and 721 different forms is a patchwork maze of complexity and a testament to confusion over common sense." U.S. Representative Walter Jones (R-NC)



"The IRS tax code is 44,000 pages and growing" U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal (R-LA)



"The current tax code is almost 60,000 pages, longer than the Bible" U.S. Representative Dave Hobson (R-OH)



"the current tax code, which at 1.3 million pages is twice the length of Tolstoy's War and Peace" U.S. Representative Nick Smith (R-MI)



"the federal tax code has about four times as many words as the bible. Accompanying the law are a staggering two-and-a-half million pages of regulations" ...and President George W. Bush (courtesy of Professor Paul Caron of the TaxProf Blog)



"The tax code is a complicated mess. You realize, it's a million pages long."