[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 73 (Monday, June 13, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            EVEN A TAXPAYER IS INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

  (Mr. TRAFICANT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TRAFICANT. In 1988, Mr. Speaker, the IRS said Jack and Wanda 
Biggars owed back taxes. Their son later said the IRS pressured them, 
intimidated them, frightened them and, ultimately, confiscated the 
family home. They auctioned it off. In hopelessness the mother and 
father committed suicide.
  The son said, ``The IRS told them, `Pay or we'll take your house, 
we'll take everything you have, and there's not a damn thing you can do 
about it.'''
  I say to my colleagues, ``Is this what it has come to? The IRS can 
wreck your life? Wreck your business? Drive families apart? Intimidate? 
Pressure?''
  Mr. Speaker, this does not seem like America to me. This sounds like 
the KGB, and Congress ought to be ashamed of themselves when it takes 
discharge petition No. 12 to get a bill to the floor that says an 
American is innocent until proven guilty, even a taxpayer.
  Shame, IRS, and shame on the Congress that allows them to rip off the 
American people.
  Think about it.

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