[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ABUSES BY IRS REVEALED TO BE EVEN WORSE THAN FIRST THOUGHT

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, it is amazing what a little sunshine will 
do.
  Political corruption, fraud, criminal activity and wrongdoing cannot 
operate in the light of day. When corrupt practices are opened up to 
public scrutiny, wrongdoers are held accountable for their actions.
  The White House Travel Office abuse of power; the 900 FBI files of 
Republicans that were discovered; the entertaining of drug dealers and 
arms smugglers in the White House; the use of the Lincoln bedroom for 
fund-raising; dialing for dollars from the White House; the selling of 
trade missions to raise money; the laundering of money at a Buddhist 
temple; putting $25,000 price tags on White House coffees; returning 
over $2 million in campaign contributions because they came from 
illegal sources. All these were activities that were not conducted in 
the light of day and had to be exposed by journalists and congressional 
investigators.
  And now we have the IRS. The abusive practices of the IRS, known to 
millions of individual Americans, began to be open to public scrutiny 
last year as a result of the Senate hearings. The first rays of 
sunshine are starting to come through, and the IRS looks even worse 
than we thought.
  Free people cannot tolerate any of these abuses, at the White House 
or at the IRS.

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