Wendy Sherman: “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…”

“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 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.…”