[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 139 (Wednesday, October 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H8640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE HEARINGS ON IRS ABUSES

  (Mrs. MYRICK asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, when was the last time that the American 
people saw such a spectacle as last week, when the Senate Finance 
Committee conducted hearings on the IRS abuses? Listen to some of the 
shocking things that we heard.
  IRS agent Jennifer Long, a 15-year veteran with the agency, actually 
told the Senators that the management of IRS systematically concluded 
that Americans who reported less than $20,000 in income a year were tax 
cheats because nobody can live on that income.
  Well, I have got some people back home who would totally disagree 
with that, especially seniors who live on fixed incomes every day, and 
they get by on a lot less than that.
  IRS agents are not told to go out and be just, to be fair, to use 
good judgment to enforce their laws. No; they are told to go out and 
raise as much money as possible. If they do not shake down enough 
money, their careers could be in jeopardy.
  And now the White House is asking the very same agency that is out of 
control to reform itself. Maybe this is the most amazing spectacle of 
all.

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