The IRS estimates that the average taxpayer who itemizes will spend 22 hours this year completing tax returns. That’s 3 hours more work than last year. The increase is due to the 1,260 changes Congress pushed into the tax code in the past two years.

Mention the IRS and most congressmen will boast about the show hearings they held, finally, on Gestapo-like abuses by IRS agents. These hearings were great for TV sound-bites, but what about the pain and suffering we all go through with these confusing tax forms. Especially when the rules keep changing every year.

Now I’m not one to defend the IRS, but they just enforce the tax code, they don’t write it. Congress does that. Remember anyone for Congress ever campaigning on a platform of making the tax code even longer and more complicated? No, candidate after candidate calls for a simpler tax code, but Congress still votes for a more complex one. What’s going on here?

Simple, big tax loopholes are easier to hide in a complex code. Mention changing the tax code and all the lobbyists in Washington open up their fat checkbooks to make campaign contributions. That’s why the tax code is the best fundraising device Congress ever designed. No wonder Congress passed 1,260 changes costing you 3 more hours of precious sleep.

Most congressmen don’t start out putting their career and re-election fundraising ahead of the public interest, but the longer they’re in Washington, well . . . When you and I are up half the night filling out our taxes, let’s remember it’s the career politicians in Congress who need to wake up and smell the coffee.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Social Security is called the third rail of politics because when a program sends checks to millions, a congressman who talks about changing it puts himself at risk of being politically electrocuted. If you want a career in Washington, who needs risk?

Thankfully, some view Congress differently. They aren’t trying to cash in on a career. Forty-five Representatives have limited themselves to three House terms. These are the kind of legislators America’s founders hoped would go to Congress folks not afraid to tackle the tough issues.

Mark Sanford of South Carolina is one of these term-limited members and he’s willing to act to save Social Security. He’s introduced legislation to allow you to take back your Social Security account from the politicians. His bill would allow you to invest a portion to grow a real retirement benefit.

Political opponents raise concerns about the risk of allowing you to invest your own money. Yet, the bigger concern is what Mark Sanford calls the “political risk” of leaving your money in the hands of the politicians in Congress.

What is the political risk? Politicians chasing votes have spent every dollar you’ve paid to Social Security. The money’s gone. There is no “trust fund” because Congress couldn’t be trusted. If a private pension fund was run this way, the people would be arrested. Managing your Social Security, Congress spent all the money and the program is headed for bankruptcy.

But why should Congress care? They’ve opted out of Social Security and their congressional pension makes them millionaires. It’s only term-limited members like Mark Sanford who are willing to touch the third rail so that you won’t get railroaded.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Washington is a strange place. At times, frankly, it’s a theater of the absurd.

Congressman Bill McCollum of Florida just introduced a constitutional amendment for term limits. Of course, as he well knows there are still far too many career politicians in Congress for the amendment to have any chance. But in putting his legislation forward Mr. McCollum pointed out that congressional careerism is one of the biggest problems our country faces.

Only in Washington!

You see while Congressman McCollum is right about the problems of careerism, he’s also been in office for 19 years and he has no intention of leaving anytime soon. He campaigns against careerism while pursuing a lifelong career in Congress.

When asked if he hasn’t fallen victim to the corrupting influences of power after two decades in office, Mr. McCollum replied, “I would say there are exceptions to every rule.”

What hypocrisy! While the real leaders of term limits have pledged to limit themselves to be citizen legislators right here and now to lead by example, Mr. McCollum smugly preaches a creed he refuses to live by. If you believe in term limits, then they should apply to you. Andrew Carnegie once remarked, “As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.”

No amendment has a snowball’s chance while career politicians control Congress. We must change Congress by sending a different kind of representative to Washington, one pledged to come back home. Mr. McCollum would do well to remember that George Washington established the two-term limit on the President by boldly stepping down himself not by sending out a press release.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.