John Rice Carter: “Today, I rise in support of five commonsense bills that hold the government accountable to the people it was created to…”

“Today, I rise in support of five commonsense bills that hold the government accountable to the people it was created to serve. It is amazing that we have an agency called the Internal Revenue Service to which we have surrendered almost unlimited power for the purposes of collecting revenues of this country. Arguably, American citizens will tell you that the IRS has control over their lives, their liberty, and their property, and, some would argue, without due process of law. You don't tell your taxman: I am not going to answer that question, I am going to take the Fifth, because immediately he will seize your property. Yet we witnessed on television--as we found out--that the IRS was being looked into for being incompetent and corrupt and maybe the most incompetent and corrupt Federal agency in the country, and that they were actually out investigating groups who were voicing their absolute constitutional right to express their opinion in the political arena and the right to gather and meet, which is guaranteed by the Constitution. But, no, the first thing we get from the person in charge is: I am going to take the Fifth Amendment. As many can see, we have been battling in the committee process in Congress over and over with the IRS. They have abused our tax system to target conservative political organizations, and this abuse has to be stopped and they have to be held responsible.…”