SACRAMENTO, CA -Last week, President Bush outlined his agenda for a second term, stating that his goal was to simplify a "complicated and outdated'' tax code. If Bush really wants to make the tax code simpler, he should implement a flat tax.

A flat income tax would scrap our current tax structure with its escalating brackets for a single tax rate charged to all taxpayers uniformly. With a flat tax, the tax code would not only be easy to understand but straightforward to execute.

Under a flat tax, gone are the endless tabulations and confusing deductions. A taxpayer would be allowed one personal deduction, or a joint deduction if married, plus one additional deduction per dependent. That tax base would then be multiplied by the flat tax rate, and viola, there's your tax burden. This simplicity would save Americans time and money.

The White House Budget Office estimates that we waste $183 billion a year complying with the tax code--an appalling figure when one realizes it equals 8.7 percent of total tax revenues. With a new system, tax collecting would be cheaper as well.

The IRS would no longer have to rely on its 50,000-plus pages of code to decipher a tax return, for a taxpayer's calculation could be written on a single form. In fact, the IRS itself could be greatly reduced or even eliminated, saving billions more. A flat tax system would also virtually eliminate the distortions in the economy brought on by our current monstrous code.

Our current system has the top five percent of earners paying nearly half of the nation's revenues. A flat tax system ensures that the richest Americans pay more without being unfairly targeted by the majority.

Under our present tax system, high-income taxpayers have an incentive to circumvent the system. Applying the flat tax will allow for more transparency since tax cheaters will no longer have any loopholes for escape.

With the existing system, many Americans shun more work to avoid falling into a higher tax bracket. In a flat tax system the marginal tax rate on the next dollar you earn is the same no matter how much you make, so there is no punishment for earning more.

According to Hoover Institution scholars Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rabushka, switching from our current tax system to a flat tax system would result in a four-percent increase in total work hours. That translates into a three-percent rise in the GDP, or $750 per person. Despite any potential benefits, many say that it can't be done. But it can.

Five former Soviet republics have implemented a flat tax system. Russian President Vladimir Putin instituted a 13-percent flat tax in 2001. The results: tax evasion declined and tax revenues increased 28 percent the following year. Even Governor Schwarzenegger considered implementing a flat tax here in California, a state with the third most punitive taxes in the country.

He should give it a second look, given how the state's tax is highly variable. Money pours in during good years, and trickles in during recessions. The system is also blatantly unequal, with the top five percent of taxpayers paying a full 47 percent of revenue.

While most Americans applaud the President's willingness to tackle our dreaded tax code, if he is truly serious about fixing the system, a flat tax is the answer.

Anthony P. Archie is a public policy fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco. He can be reached via email at aarchie@pacificresearch.org.