...before he worries about Americans closing theirs:

Twice in recent years, Mr. Baucus has made mistakes on local property taxes that led to late payments and fines. The senator’s tax history shows just how difficult it is to narrow the so-called tax gap—the estimated $290 billion a year taxpayers owe the federal government but haven’t paid—because even taxpayers who say they intend to pay in full sometimes make mistakes. “No one is immune from the complexities of the tax code,” said Barrett Kaiser, a spokesman for Mr. Baucus. “Every year, millions of Americans struggle as they sit down at kitchen tables to file their taxes.”

That last point is...spectacular.

Our tax code is unavoidably complex.  Millions of Americans do struggle to file their taxes.  Almost nobody in this country files a tax return without mistakes.  So isn’t it high time to simplify the tax code?

Can we count on Sen. Baucus’ support?  Probably not, given that Baucus is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, but were he actually concerned about the complexity of the tax code and not just about grabbing as much money out of the pockets of Americans as he can we could.