Carl Levin

I understand that the Army is planning renewable energy projects with an energy capacity valued at $7 billion in the coming years.

What you are asking for is very reasonable in terms of this additional $26 billion just for defense and $56 billion overall for defense and non-defense.

It is a critically important item that Senator Blumenthal has been raising.

It will not unlock the vault to the secrets and misdeeds of the past.

This goes to the heart of the matter. If they want to operate here and they are bound by our laws...

We have to go after the tax evaders and get them to pay what is owed.

It is an unacceptable explanation. That is their explanation. It should not be your explanation.

Now the Swiss banks sought out U.S. clients. They traveled here. They sold Swiss secrecy to U.S. taxpayers.

That is a terrible admission, by the way, that enforcing a subpoena does not have effects.

And it is the lack of vigor that we feel and you should be aware of it.

Every time, just about every time here that a reason is provided for a problem in trying to get names, it comes back to a refusal or reluctance or some act of obstruction by the Swiss Government or a Swiss court.

The point is that you were denied access to those names after making a treaty request by a Swiss court; is that correct?

They should be subject to U.S. transparency and not shielded by Swiss secrecy.

Tax abuse was rampant between 2005 and mid-2009.

It is all about the names. It is not about the hints. It is not about a treasure hunt.

I cannot think of anything much more egregious in this area than a bank telling a customer, helping a customer to open up an account in a shell corporation account in some tax haven.

It was a criminal case, was it not?

Was the major mission--not significant portion, major mission--of those detailed attorneys tax enforcement?

This is really egregious, by the way.

If the main mission is to do the same thing they were doing here, you do not detail.

While we have all of these actions that we need to enforce our tax laws, everything has been frozen now.

The Swiss Government was "very surprised" by the indictment because we that is, the Swiss, understood there to be an implicit agreement.

But did you tell them that you had never made such an agreement?

But you cannot confirm that is what we were seeking?

So there is--that is our document; right?