[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               IRS REFORM

  (Mr. GRAHAM asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, Americans who take an increasingly cynical 
view of politics and politicians often claim that politicians are all 
the same, and those who do not vote justify their passivity by saying 
it does not matter. Half the people in America who are eligible to vote 
choose not to, and there is something that we need to address.
  There is an issue on the radar screen of most Americans called 
reforming the IRS. Hopefully we can convince folks that we are serious 
about changing Washington.
  The Democratic Party had Washington for 40 years and there has been 
no major effort during that period of time to change the way we tax the 
American people and the way the IRS works. We have been in town for 3 
years, and there are major overhauls of the IRS looming and some have 
come to fruition, with the help from the Democratic Party, which 
convinces me if we pick the right issue and drive it hard, people will 
come our way. Now the IRS has to prove that one has done something 
wrong; one does not have to prove oneself innocent.
  I would ask every taxpayer in this country to watch this debate, 
closely follow who is leading it, and I can promise that the Republican 
Party is going to take our hopes and dreams for a new Tax Code for a 
new century and we are going to boldly go forward, and I hope our 
colleagues in the Democratic Party will join us.

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