The old cliché comparing the production of laws to sausage making has never
been graphic enough for me when it comes to tax legislation. I have always
liked to contrast the promise with the end result.
The promise is like a good old fashioned apple pie when it is being sold to
the American people by the President. However, when Congress starts
to work on it, it's exactly like when the body digests an apple pie. When
the legislation finishes its trip through Congress, the results look & smell
surprisingly similar to the pie when the body has finished its work.
I have long used this description of the tax legislation process in my
speeches & newsletters. Back after the fiasco that became the Tax
Reform Act of 1986, I commissioned an artist to design a poster illustrating
this concept. I had a few thousand copies printed in red, white,
black & blue ink on 11 inch by 17 inch poster paper. Most of those
copies were sold or given away back in the Bay Area. However, while
looking for something recently, Sherry came a cross a half case full of
them.
Although the poster was designed during the Reagan administration, recent developments have made it as
relevant today as it was back then. The tax reduction promises made by the
President are being worked on by Congress in the same way as the body works on
an apple pie. If any changes to the tax code do make it out, they will
most likely bear a striking resemblance to the end result of an apple pie.
There are JPG versions of the poster below. We couldn't fit the entire 11 x 17 inch poster on the scanner, so we had to
break it into three pieces. They are thumb-nailed here, so click on each
one to see the larger version.
If you are interested in acquiring an actual copy of the poster, please
contact
me.
