FIND AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE IRS CODE

Congressional Republicans are pushing ahead with plans to sunset the federal tax code by a date certain. The latest version sets that date for Dec. 31, 2001, and is sponsored by Republican Sens. Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas and Sam Brownback of Kansas. The measure is backed the potent voice of small business, National Federation of Independent Business, which held a series of rallies promoting this cause across Missouri last year, ending here in Cape Girardeau. (For more information on the NFIB effort, call 1-888-NOT-4-IRS.)

Good for the Republicans -- and the NFIB. Our current federal tax code is indeed an abomination, and it must be junked in favor of a fairer, simpler and flatter system of collecting taxes. And while we're at it, shame on President Clinton, who last week trotted out to denounce this effort as "unfair" without bothering to offer a plan of his own to deal with the bloated tax code.

The idea of establishing a date certain that is just short of four years off for junking the current tax code is an excellent one. It will help focus the historic debate, now under way across America, over what should replace it. It is no accident that this debate has come to the fore following the Republican takeover of Congress four years ago. In a sharp break with decades of dismal practice, congressional leaders are now sponsoring a series of great debates over whether to go to a flat tax or a national sales (or consumption) tax. Both are promising, and either is likely to be an improvement on the current incomprehensible mess.

Let the debate continue, but by all means pass the bill sunsetting the current tax code.