The US tax code has some 7.5 million words
How could it possibly have spiraled out of control to this extent? For one, taxing income is a fundamentally flawed method of generating governmental revenue. But rather than revamp the system, it has been easier to simply afix patch after patch after patch as certain groups complain and lobby. The resulting incomprehensible mess encourages cheating. Put the blame on both the politicians for coming up with this crap and the citizeny themselves for not revolting against it. Until the withholding tax is eliminated and everyone is forced to make quarterly payments like us business owners, nothing will change.
A national sales tax has some good points but it puts the burden of collecting taxes on private businesses, encourages cheating, and would be complicated to administer. I still like Steve Forbes' idea: a simple flat rate post card. Fill in the amount you made and times it by a standard percentage (I think it was around 18%???). No deductions. No loopholes. Everybody pays the same percentage of their income.