Higher Calling (Tampa edition)

Higher Calling (Tampa edition)

Former Congressman Sam M. Gibbons challenges young lawyers to get involved.

By David R. Corder

Associate Editor

Sam M. Gibbons had a question. What could he say to a group of young lawyers that would be meaningful? Somewhere, among all the people he asked that question, Tampa's distinguished former congressman found the answer.

The 34-year congressmen issued the challenge while speaking on May 18 to members of the Hillsborough County Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division. Quoting President John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural speech, Gibbons asked the young lawyers not only what they could do for their country but also for their planet.

To overcome America's economic and social ills, he said, bright young lawyers must step forward with solutions to solve the problems. He cited several areas that concern him such as education, health care, the federal revenue system and environment.

Speaking candidly, this decorated World War II veteran - a man who parachuted behind enemy lines in advance of the U.S. invasion at Normandy, France - even attributed some of his actions as a congressman for problems U.S. society now faces. In general, he spoke about the need to reform the nation's federal revenue system. In particular, he talked about how that system hinders the nation's ability to compete in the foreign markets.

"The tax system that is so expensive to administer is so unfair and is so hard to understand that even the best lawyers in Tampa, and the best lawyers in Washington, don't really understand it," he says. "If they don't tell you they don't understand it, don't trust them. I know because I worked with it. I was responsible for writing a lot of this legislation. It is a mess and can't be fixed."

But the problem is getting around what he labeled as the vested interests - members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Finance Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, their staffs, the tax lawyers, tax accountants and so on.

"We've got to get a simple fair system that people understand and will accept and trust that is in step with the rest of the world," he said. "The rest of the world has gone to a consumer tax system. They call it by various names. The popular name is the value-added tax system. But it works very simply and it's fair. It can be adjusted so it is not regressive."

If the system is not changed, Gibbons predicted a further exodus of U.S. jobs to overseas markets. He took off his eyeglasses and cited them as an example.

"If these glasses are made in America and you want to sell them abroad, when they leave this country they carry the full cost of the United States government," he says. "When they get to a foreign country, through their value-added taxes, they put their cost of government on these glasses. Then it goes to the consumer with two costs of government."

On the other hand, he says, countries such as Australia discount their cost of government prior to shipping such products overseas. That creates a competitive disadvantage to U.S. products.

"When it gets to our full-of-holes tax system, which probably escapes being taxed, it goes to the American consumer without any taxes," he says. "Now where, if you were manufacturing glasses, would you manufacture glasses on earth? Certainly not in America. That's true for everything we manufacture and all the services we provide."

To overcome such problems, Gibbons said, dedicated public servants must come forward with the courage to overcome the obstacles that impede solutions.

"If you think of yourself as a servant, a problem-solver, you've got one of the highest callings on earth," he told the young lawyers. "It is rewarding to think of yourself as a lawyer. It is rewarding to practice as a lawyer, because we provide the lubricant that makes society work.

"We provide the leadership and skills to teach people to work together and not fight," he adds. "Some of the young lawyers in this room right now are going to be the leaders of the future."