Scholarship Essay Madness

I was looking through scholarship listings and I found one in the classic essay format, where you send in a college transcript, and an essay about whatever issue the foundation who is paying for the scholarship is pushing. This one was about reforming the federal tax system. I have no idea how the federal tax system works, or how to find out how it works! How is a college freshman supposed to write a 750 word essay about something they have no background knowledge in? I'm not even an economics or political science major. I would much prefer writing an essay about my opinions or my biggest challenge, or one of the essays they usually have people write for scholarship applications. Does anyone have any thoughts about the whole tax-reform thing? Could anyone even tell me the basis behind wanting to reform the tax system? I mean, I hate paying money into social security that I'm almost positive I'll never use, but wouldn't reform just cause more problems? Maybe in an election year we should be worried less about tax reform and more about this housing crisis we're facing. Politicians need to get their priorities in order.
Another thought, while I'm on the subject of politics. Do any of you have any advice on good, unbiased places to find political information about presidential candidates. Things like what issues they stand for, and how they have voted in the past, as members of Congress?