Cord Byrd: “we have heard much in recent years of the horrors and abuses inflicted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the…”

“we have heard much in recent years of the horrors and abuses inflicted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the American taxpayer. I have little cause for doubt, Mr. President, that there lies a certain degree of verisimilitude in these allegations and, further, that the pending legislation represents a necessary and overdue effort to ameliorate these abuses. Certainly, a portion of the criticism directed at the IRS has been justly earned by the officials and employees who administer and work at the agency. If but half of the concerns raised during the Finance Committee's recent hearings on these IRS abuses are true, there is indeed an immediate and overwhelming need to reform and restructure the IRS. However, let us remember, Mr. President, that the task to which the Congress has assigned the IRS has never been nor will ever be a popular one. The simple fact that few people enjoy paying taxes leads logically to the presumption that they will not embrace the very agency charged with collecting their taxes. Having said that, Mr. President, let me now turn my focus to the bill before us.”