Bob Kerrey: “An additional 800 pages in the code. Lord knows, this is good news to them compared to some years we don't pass a tax…”

“An additional 800 pages in the code. Lord knows, this is good news to them compared to some years we don't pass a tax bill until about now, until they are almost always into their filing season. What we have to understand, what citizens need to understand is the IRS is managed according to law. So title I of this bill that is sitting down here at this desk passed 421 to 4 in the House. Title I of this bill deals with management and accountability. Who could possibly object to passing a piece of legislation that would give the Commissioner of the IRS the management authority to do what you just described? If the President of the United States calls up the Tax Commissioner, who he just appointed and we just confirmed, and says, ``I just heard Senator Bumpers on the floor say something really pretty smart, unusual. He said that when he was Governor of Arkansas, he told his revenue commissioner that anybody who is discourteous is going to be fired. I want you to do that.'' Do you know what Mr. Rossotti would say? ``That is a great idea, Mr. President, but the law doesn't give me that authority. I can't even hire my senior people. I can't manage this agency.'' The law doesn't give him that authority. It is not a corporation, it is a creature of law, and we have written this law so as to confine and make it difficult for the Commissioner to do the job.”