Kent Conrad: “when they make this Wizard of Oz reference, I do remember words from the Wizard of Oz: brains, courage, and heart. That…”

“when they make this Wizard of Oz reference, I do remember words from the Wizard of Oz: brains, courage, and heart. That is what we need here. I believe we have the brains in this country to go after a tax gap that is well over $400 billion a year now. That is $2 trillion over 5 years, and it should return substantial money to the Treasury of the United States. I believe we can go after these tax havens that another committee of Congress has said are running a revenue loss to this country of $100 billion a year. I believe we can shut down these abusive tax shelters that have the spectacle of wealthy investors in this country buying European sewer systems and depreciating them on their books so they hold down their U.S. taxes and then lease them back to these foreign enemies. Come on. We can't capture 15 percent--15 percent--of the tax gap and the tax haven abuses and the tax shelter scams? We can't do that? Well, if we can't, they ought to get a new bunch in here.”