Forbes continues his campaign for tax reform

F. Birusk Tugan

Friday, June 16, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

Publisher Steve Forbes said Thursday that the $34 million he spent on his unsuccessful campaign for president "would have bought only five minutes on the Super Bowl."

In town to boost the congressional campaign of state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, Forbes downplayed the expense of his campaign and pledged to continue with his main issue -- tax reform.

"My chief regret is not winning," Forbes said.

Forbes, however, said his message about tax reform is getting through to the American people.

That's a key issue for Porter, who introduced Forbes at a press conference as "the true father of tax reform." The press conference was held in front of the Las Vegas office of the Internal Revenue Service.

Attacking the federal tax code, Forbes compared its length to that of some historical documents and of the Bible and the Constitution. The Constitution has 5,000 words while the federal tax code has more than 7.5 million words, he said.

"Nobody knows what's in it. Not even the people in this building know what's in it," said the Forbes magazine's publisher, pointing to the IRS building.

Porter said that changes are needed to make the code simple, uniform and, more importantly, consistent.

"People in this country would rather be mugged than be audited by the IRS. There is not an agency that people are afraid of more than the IRS," Porter said.

Despite their disagreements on legalized gambling and storing nuclear waste in Nevada, Forbes attended a $500-a-plate fund-raising dinner for Porter at the home of Tom Wiesner, a member of the state Board of Regents.

At the press conference, Forbes said that he will trust science and await the result of studies being done on the project about burying the nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. Forbes had said in January that he was "undecided pending further study." Porter said his position is clear and that he has voted three times against it.

Forbes, who is known as an opponent of legalized gambling, said gaming is a state issue. When casino gambling in Atlantic City came up in 1977, he had said, "Leave it to Nevada. Nevada knows how to do it," and voted against it.

The Nevada State Democratic Party criticized Porter for relying on "right wing extremists" to help him raise money. In a press release on Thursday, state Democratic Chairman Rory Reid said, "First it was Speaker Dennis Hastert, who led the fight to dump nuclear waste in Nevada. Then it was Dick Armey and Tom DeLay, also big backers of dumping highly toxic nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

"With friends like this, Nevada won't need enemies," Reid said.

Responding to the criticism, Porter said, "You can't get things done by pointing fingers, laying blame."