[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 55 (Wednesday, May 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            IRS GETS A RAISE

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, tucked away deep inside the $128 billion in 
new Federal taxes in President Clinton's new budget proposal is a $529 
million increase in the salaries for the Internal Revenue Service. That 
is right, Mr. Speaker. The IRS, the same out-of-control rogue Federal 
agency that has trampled the constitutional rights of millions of 
American citizens, is getting a pay raise.
  We are all familiar with the saying, ``if it is not broke, do not 
fix.'' However, someone needs to introduce this administration and my 
liberal colleagues to the concept that if it is broke, do not reward 
them with a half a billion dollar pay raise out of the pockets of the 
American taxpayers.
  In light of recent reports of taxpayer abuse by IRS agents, the 
President promised swift action. If a half a billion dollar pay raise 
is swift action, I would hate to see just what his long-range 
corrective action would entail.
  Thomas Sowell, a noted economist, once said, ``It is easy to be 
wrong, and to persist in being wrong, when the costs of being wrong are 
paid for by others.''

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