To skip, or not to skip—that is the question:
Whether 'tis better for the purse to suffer
The bite made double, with the two years' taxes
Paid in this twelvemonth—and then to be current,
Or to make laws against these last year's taxes
And by forgiving end them? To skip—to owe
No more; and by this skip to say we end The heartache and the strange unnatural shocks
Our purse seems heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To skip—to owe—
To owe perchance still more! Aye, there's the rub. . . .
—J. W. Abels in the Nation
Crotchety Robert L. ("Muley") Doughton, chairman of the prima donna-packed House Ways & Means Committee, felt the tax rub. His own soliloquy: "We are dealing with the most hateful, difficult problem that ever came along in the annals of mankind."
The Complication. From the fogbound Ways & Means Committee was coming a taxpayers' nightmare—a nightmare not because the taxes were steep, for the U.S., by & large, is prepared to pay high taxes, but because the plan is so complicated that not even experts are sure it would work.
The committee plan called for a general 20% withholding tax starting July 1. For the great majority of citizens, paying their 1942 taxes this year on the installment plan, the withholding tax would merely apply against the installments due in September and December. The only pay-as-you-go feature: taxpayers would be "permitted" to get on a current basis by paying their 1942 taxes in full by July—if they could afford it.
Two days later the committee announced a refinement. It was ready now to encourage taxpayers to "make themselves" current. The encouragement: a 1-to-4% discount for paying 1942 taxes ahead of the installment dates.
Taxpayers were utterly confused. The politicians' arguments against the Ruml plan had been that it favored the wealthy. Now the Ways & Means Committee proposed discounts to people who had enough money to pay off a year ahead.
The Inspiration. The House Republicans had a sudden inspiration. The Democratic-controlled Ways & Means Committee had fumbled the tax job. Minority Leader Joe Martin called a conference of twelve Republican steering committee members. Their strategy: grab the tax bill when it reaches the House floor, substitute pay-as-you-go reduced to its simplest terms, in a modified version of the Ruml plan. Sense as well as strategy was on their side, for many a disgusted Democrat would not vote for the committee bill. The possibility was not remote that the House might overturn its no-longer-august tax-making committee.
The move had further significance. For years the House Republicans have done little but negate. Now, vying for power, Joe Martin and the G.O.P. saw a chance to come out for something—and that something, the Ruml plan, was politically popular. Said Joe Martin: "They'll know they've been in a fight."