David Obey: “the article points out that tax fraud is a ticking time bomb in this country, probably approaching up to $300 billion in…”

“the article points out that tax fraud is a ticking time bomb in this country, probably approaching up to $300 billion in lost revenue. It tells the story of one family worth billions of dollars, one family that holds, in art collections alone, over $6 billion in assets. They have a town house, a swimming pool. They have property in Kenya and France. They spend tens of millions of dollars each year. They spend $65,000 just in dog bills. They have not even filed a tax return for the last 20 years, and the IRS did not even know about it. That is the kind of tax avoidance which the IRS ought to be able to track, and so as long as they do not have adequate resources, will not be able to track. If you are some taxpayer paying $30,000 a year and they caught you, you would get womped with a bill in a hurry. But here is an example of a family that has lived like kings, international multinational kings, for years, in full view; and they have paid not one dime in taxes and never even bothered to file. This is no laughing matter, when the administration is asking for more money to fund the IRS. So I would suggest that for those two reasons alone, this bill still falls far short of where it ought to be.”