Bob Kerrey: “I appreciate both the Senators' questions and statements. As a former Governor, I have commented right from the…”

“I appreciate both the Senators' questions and statements. As a former Governor, I have commented right from the beginning that he could fire anybody who was a discourteous employee. Let me say again, for the record, we have a remarkable system of tax collection in the United States that is largely voluntary. One of the disturbing things about the current trend is we have gone from 93 percent voluntary compliance down to 83 percent in the last 30 years. That means 83 percent of our taxpayers voluntarily comply, and they are paying higher taxes as a result of the 17 percent who don't. There is a need to make certain there is a sufficient amount of law enforcement out there. The dilemma, though, is the current law, and I underscore this because we are a nation of laws, after all. The IRS is not a corporation. It is created by law, and it operates under law. Nobody doubts if their workload went up as a result of the balanced budget agreement we just passed. There is significant new complexity in there of, what, four or five different rates you are paying for capital gains.”