[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 10, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HELPING THE RICH AND POWERFUL AVOID TAXES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, after 4\1/2\ days and 15 votes to 
find a Speaker, we started with our business by passing rules. The 
Republican rules and first day's activities were to help the rich and 
the powerful avoid taxes.
  The government, like any entity, just like any business, has to have 
revenue. When people don't pay their fair share, they are cheating. 
They are committing crimes. They are defrauding their fellow citizens 
because their fellow citizens either have to pay more money to make up 
the differences or they don't get services that they otherwise would be 
provided through the government.
  By revoking all of those monies to the IRS to hire new employees, 
they are giving wealthy corporations and wealthy individuals, like 
Donald Trump, who had only one auditor looking at his return, which was 
not looked at within the time period it was supposed to be looked at 
under the law, the policy of the government at the time, they are 
giving those people an open door to continue to make their IRS 
payments--really not payments but their first offers. That is what they 
do. It is not filing your return. It is filing your first offer.
  So if they get away with that, which I don't think they will in the 
Senate, they are depriving the middle class who they said they are 
trying to support, services and fairness, and the middle class will 
have to pay more money because it is the wealthy and the higher 
corporations that get away with fraudulent returns.
  Then they are talking about banning or protesting, through H. Con. 
Res. 3, violence against pro-life centers, anti-abortion centers. I 
hope everybody in the House is against violence against those 
facilities. But there is nothing in there about violence against 
Planned Parenthood or abortion provider facilities. Both are equally as 
anti-American and wrong as the other, but there is nothing about that.
  So we are seeing a very slanted agenda, and there is no opportunity 
to amend that resolution. Even though they talked about an amendment 
process to give everybody an opportunity, it is really kind of 
transparency-ish but not transparency and not open. It is not openness; 
it is open-ish.
  You have got to look closely at what is going on here. There are a 
lot of things that look good on the front but really aren't fair and 
right to the majority of the people. Much of what is projected here is 
to try to maintain the status quo in the name of freedom. It is the 
freedom of people not to comply with Federal Government laws and 
regulations. It is the freedom to basically live independent of the law 
and independent of the Federal government and attempts to starve the 
Federal Government of the revenue it needs.
  The bill yesterday would increase the debt by over $100 billion. That 
is not fiscal conservativeness. That is trying to starve the Federal 
Government.

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