Bob Kerrey: “I believe we are doing what is commonly referred to as ``making the perfect the enemy of the good.'' In other words, we…”

“I believe we are doing what is commonly referred to as ``making the perfect the enemy of the good.'' In other words, we are taking a good piece of legislation that passed the House last November in a 426-4 vote, which would give taxpayers substantial new powers. Over 100,000 collection notices are sent out every single day. There are over 238,000 incoming phone calls to the IRS every single day and, by some estimates, over 40 percent of them are not answered, and a very high percentage of those calls that are answered are answered incorrectly. The collection notices go out with no concern about whether or not negligence has occurred. So fearful are the American people when they receive a collection notice that former Commissioner Richardson--when she came before the Finance Committee this year, she said that her first paycheck came with an IRS return address and it terrified her to open it. She was the Commissioner of the IRS, and she was practically too frightened to open a letter from the IRS.”