[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 11, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H161-H162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STRONG NATIONS NEED TAX COLLECTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Sherman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, for most of my life, I have been a student 
of history. As a CPA, a tax lawyer, and a former head of the second 
largest tax agency in this country, I focused on the fact that if you 
look at empires, republics, and kingdoms, the ones that succeeded were 
those that were able to collect taxes. And when they were unable to 
collect taxes, they fell.
  I have seen patriotic anarchists come to this floor. They want 
America to be

[[Page H162]]

strong, but they want our ability to enforce our financial laws to be 
weak.
  There are those who say correctly that we should not defund the 
police because we have crime in the streets. But we also have to 
prevent crime in the suites.
  Yet every time a billionaire successfully cheats on his taxes, a 
member of the Freedom Caucus earns his wings. There are two threats to 
our ability to collect taxes. Both of them seem to be supported by many 
on the Republican side.
  The first of these is the underfunding of the IRS. For 3 days and 3 
long nights, we heard each faction of the Republican Party say how they 
wanted procedures that would eventually lead to reducing our national 
debt, and then the first thing they bring to the floor is a bill that 
increases the national debt by $1.6 trillion according to six 
bipartisan Secretaries of the Treasury.
  Frankly, I think that estimate is way too low because I have seen tax 
collection from every side; as a legislator, as a tax administrator and 
auditor, and as an adviser to private businesses.

                              {time}  1100

  When you conduct audits, you not only bring in money from that 
taxpayer, but you create an image in that social circle that tax 
returns need to be filled out accurately and even conservatively. That 
will no doubt lead to far more tax collection than the $1.6 trillion 
that has been estimated.
  Keep in mind that working people really can't evade taxes. They get 
W-2s and 1099s. It is those with complicated tax returns and our large 
corporations that we are talking about.
  Now, with the additional funding the Democrats have provided the IRS, 
we can finally put ``service'' back into Internal Revenue Service. 
Hopefully, they will answer the damn phones.
  We need to see one IRS employee for every 2,000 tax returns that are 
filed. As you can see on this chart, that is what Ronald Reagan had 
back in 1988. Now, we are close to 3,500 tax returns for every IRS 
employee. That is untenable. That is why Donald Trump could take 
outrageous positions in his tax returns. He counted on light audits.
  Ronald Reagan paid his taxes and staffed the IRS. Stand with Ronald 
Reagan and stand with adequate funding for the Internal Revenue 
Service.
  There is a second threat to our ability to collect taxes--it is 
longer term--and that is the possible rise of cryptocurrency. When 
somebody tells you what they are, believe them. Cryptocurrency tells 
you what it is or aspires to be in its name. Cryptocurrency literally 
means hidden money.
  Now, I am the only Member of this House to get a grade of F from the 
only organization dedicated to crypto advancement that rates Members of 
this House because I have been trying to ban crypto for over 5 years.
  No one has helped me more in that effort than Sam Bankman-Fried, but 
some will view Sam Bankman-Fried as just one big snake in a crypto 
Garden of Eden. The fact is, crypto is a garden of snakes.
  From the outside, it looks like it is just a token, an electronic pet 
rock, something to bet on, not because it has any value or use but 
because you might be able to sell it for even more to somebody else. 
But longer term investors in crypto are investing in it because they 
hope it becomes a currency.
  How does crypto compete with the dollar, the existing U.S. currency? 
It is right there in the name. Cryptocurrency means hidden money, and 
the market for cryptocurrency is tax evaders trying to hide their 
assets from the IRS.

                          ____________________