Jason Chaffetz: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we have heard speeches on this floor about fairness, about…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we have heard speeches on this floor about fairness, about treating them the same. I will remind Members that on June 25, 1998, the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act--which Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Cummings, and others voted in favor of--gave this same power and authority to the IRS, gave them the same authority and power. Why not treat them equally and fairly? Why not treat them exactly the same as the IRS employees? Why are the IRS employees treated so unfairly? Other Members that are standing here on this floor today voted in favor of that bill. So it was okay back then, just gave it to them. Guess what; tax compliance went up. I take issue with this quote, ``ideology rather than facts.'' The facts are, every single year the number of Federal employees not paying their Federal taxes has gone up. In fact, in 2008, we roughly didn't collect $962 million; in 2014, $1.14 billion. If you pay your taxes, you are trying to pay your taxes, you don't have a problem. But if you want to be fair, if you want to be the same, if you want to treat them equally, then give the other departments and agencies the same power that we gave the IRS.”