This should be done during non-presidential election years, maybe even by the same electoral vote method.
Yeah, it would be hard to make it a non-partisan office, but it would be a considerable improvement over a hyperpartisan non-accountable IRS.
Good point!
Along those lines, please consider the following. Note that the Founding States had given control of the federal Senate uniquely to state lawmakers partly so that state lawmakers could work with the Senate to kill House appropriations bills which Congress cannot justify under its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers.
In other words, the Senate was intended to kill House bills which not only wrongly steal 10th Amendment-protected state powers, but also steal state revenues associated with those powers.
In fact, Justice John Marshall had clarified Congress’s limited power to lay taxes as follows.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
But I feel that the ill-conceived 17th Amendment, by giving low-information voters the power to elect federal Senators, threw down this major firewall that was intended to prevent the House from stealing state powers and associated state revenues.
I have also thought that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) can be required to remind “forgetful” Congress when Congress makes appropriations bills that it cannot justify under its Section 8-limited powers.
Again, your suggestion about a federal tax commissioner is well taken.