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Washington, D.C. – To mark this year’s Tax Day, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today addressed constituent concerns about our broken tax code system and pointed to its stifling effect on the economy as proof of the need for tax reform in this week’s installment of Marco’s Constituent Mailbox video series.

In the video, Rubio outlines various disconcerting facts about the increasingly complicated tax code and the unnecessary burdens it places on taxpayers:

• It takes 13 hours for the average taxpayer to file their taxes, including record keeping, planning, as well as filling out forms.
• Last year, Americans spent 6.1 billion hours and $168 billion complying with all their tax filing requirements.
• The tax code, rules and regulations now totals more than 73,000 pages, as opposed to 400 pages when it was created in 1913.
• Americans will pay $3 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state and local taxes this year.
• Americans must work 111 days this year to pay their federal, state and local taxes.

Rubio then reads a constituent letter — from Frank in Ft. Myers — and responds to his call for a simpler tax code that is not used as an instrument of wealth redistribution or social engineering.

In response, Rubio said, “Tax reform is critical. And it’s not just critical to take the hassle out of our lives. It’s critical for the economic future of our country. Our economy is stagnant. It’s not growing fast enough. It’s not creating enough jobs. And by the way, about 40% of the jobs that it is creating pays $16 an hour or less.

“One of the things holding back our economy is a broken tax code. We have a tax code, for example, that punishes companies for investing their profits back into their businesses, to hire more people, to give their workers raises, to expand their operations. We have a tax code that actually encourages our employers to take their business overseas. Those are some of the things we have to fix as well,” Rubio continued. “So I agree with you wholeheartedly, and that’s why I hope this November we’ll have new leadership here in Washington that will move on this important item.”

View Rubio’s full YouTube response here. For television stations interested in airing today’s response, a broadcast quality video is available here.

Rubio encourages constituents to continue writing letters and sharing their concerns via his official website, rubio.senate.gov.