Former, and once again, Democrat presidential hopeful John Edwards has a new and exciting idea to make your life easier:

Courtesy of the Herald-Sun; Edwards wants IRS to complete up to 50 million tax returns

Edwards says the U.S. tax code is unnecessarily complicated and full of loopholes that favor the wealthy over the working class.

Under his plan, the IRS would gather tax information for 50 million Americans with relatively simple returns, including those who don’t need to file itemized deductions to record charitable contributions or capital gains.

The IRS would calculate their tax bill or refund and mail a final report to the taxpayer. That person would be able to just sign and return the form.

So, rather than try to do something about the complexity of the tax code, Edwards wants you to put your financial fate in the hands of the IRS.

I wonder if Edwards has ever visited the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration web site?  One of the reports you can read there tells us that:

Overall, the IRS had a successful 2006 Filing Season. TAC assistors answered 73 percent of tax law questions correctly, compared to 66 percent in the prior filing season. The IRS reported that its telephone assistors continued to answer over 90 percent of taxpayers’ tax law and tax account questions correctly.

So, John Edwards wants us to hand over responsibility for preparing our tax returns to people that can’t even answer tax questions right 10% of the time?

But of course, no leftist politician wants to make taxes easier to understand.  That’s why they instituted Tax Witholding, so you wouldn’t have to write a check to the IRS every payday, and FEEL how much they are taking out of your behind.  Now, Edwards wants to take the pain out of filing you taxes too, so you will become even more detached from the money the government is taking from you.

And the frogs are still swimming in the pot, as the temperature slowly rises…