Dan Coats: “I just returned a couple of hours ago to Washington from Indiana, and over the last several months, as I have been…”

“I just returned a couple of hours ago to Washington from Indiana, and over the last several months, as I have been visiting and talking to Hoosiers, I have continued to hear concerns about--and I am concerned, frankly--this widening trust deficit between the American people--at least the people I represent, and I think I can say pretty much across this country--and Washington. The American people lack confidence in Washington, confidence that they are getting the straight story, the hard truth. Not a lot of good things over the past several months have come out of either this body or a number of Washington agencies. This trust gap is ever widening as we have kind of careened from scandal to scandal, incident to incident, broken promises made by top officials, false statements being made, the latest of which is now this resurrection again of the IRS scandal. Let me say this: It has been said that no agency in Washington is less forgiving than the Internal Revenue Service. No agency in Washington has more power over the American people than the Internal Revenue Service. If there is an agency that needs to be apolitical and to not engage in anything that could even be deemed political, it is the IRS, given the power they have to destroy your reputation, destroy your finances, and destroy your business.…”