[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 130 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE IRS BUREAUCRACY

  (Mr. TRAFICANT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, the IRS told Joan Kilburn of Nevada she 
owed $92,000 that she said she did not. The IRS says, look, pay the 
$92,000, and we will leave you alone. Joan Kilburn said, you are wrong. 
And they said, prove it.
  After 18 months, thousands of dollars, Joan Kilburn proved a very 
simple fact. Her ex-husband owed the money and owed the money before 
they were married. They finally agreed.
  Ladies and gentlemen, tell me what has happened in our country when a 
Government bureaucrat can look at a citizen and say prove it. Prove it, 
and we will leave you alone.

                              {time}  1015

  God Almighty, if we want to reform the IRS, then change the burden-
of-proof law. In America, a person is innocent until proven guilty. 
Where did we allow the IRS to go off half-cocked, accusing our citizens 
of wrongs without proving it? Joan Kilburn, bravo.
  I yield back the balance of all those penalties.

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