Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me spend a few minutes, if I might, discussing the context of this legislation and a bit of what's in it. The Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 enacted a list of 10 ``acts or omissions'' for which IRS employees face mandatory firing. This bill would amend the 10th act or omission to expand existing grounds for termination to include political motivation. We all agree that IRS employees should not act with a political purpose. We all passionately believe that. But I want it to be clear that because of the environment in which this bill is being considered, there is absolutely no evidence that any IRS employees acted with political motivation in the matter under investigation. The inspector general reviewed and concluded that ``there is no indication that pulling these selected applications was politically motivated.'' The inspector general has come before Congress repeatedly and testified numerous times that he has found no evidence of political motivation. At the very first hearing on this matter that was held in mid-May, the inspector general was asked if he found any evidence of political motivation in the selection of the tax exemption applications. He answered, ``We did not, sir.'' When questioned by my colleague on the Ways and Means Committee, Mr.…”