Rep. Kelly Blasts IRS Commissioner for “Extortion” of Small Businesses
Oversight subcommittee hearing features testimony by IRS Commissioner Koskinen, victims of IRS abuse
“I’m coming after you because this is absolutely insane”
WATCH HERE & HERE
WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) – a member of the House Ways and Means Committee – participated in yesterday’s hearing by the Subcommittee on Oversight on protecting small businesses from abuse by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where members examined how the agency wrongly used its authority to seize taxpayer dollars and harm small businesses, including its current use of civil asset forfeiture policies and its past practice of seizing legally-earned funds from Americans. The first panel featured small business owners who testified about their experiences with the IRS’s abuse. The second panel featured IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, among others. Read more about the findings of the hearing here.
Rep. Kelly to Commissioner Koskinen and other IRS officials:
“This isn’t grilling you for the sake of grilling you—this is the fact that Americans’ rights have been taken from them by an agency that somehow equates a guy who gets up at 12:30 in the morning to milk cows as the same as the guy who structures some type of a scheme in order to be a terrorist.”
“It’s wrong. It’s wrong. Just because it’s the law doesn’t make it right. It’s wrong, and you know it’s wrong, and the people you work with know it’s wrong. So I would suggest that you do the same type of a look-inside that Congress does of, ‘What is it that we’re doing that actually is hurting people, how are we keeping people from reaching the American dream, and shouldn’t we maybe turn around and fix it?’”
“I’m not coming after you because I don’t like you. I’m coming after you because this is absolutely insane that we have to have a committee meeting to talk about people who are being wronged—their assets are being seized! You keep their money—in some cases they get some of it back; in some cases they get none of it back.”
“The issue that we are talking about today should be a national outrage … it is stunning to me the arrogance of the IRS.”
“I would hope that each member of the IRS understands that we’re not painting you all as bad people, but you are having a dramatic effect and a negative effect on the American people.”
“This is not coming after the IRS because we don’t like you. This is coming after the IRS because you have hurt our people. … I am so sick and tired of hearing about that it’s legal. There’s a hell of difference between what’s legal and what’s right. You all know that. I know it. I’ve suffered it in my personal business life. And that’s why we’re here. This is America’s House.”
Rep. Kelly to small business owners/victims of IRS abuse:
“I don’t give a damn if [the IRS] said they were sorry or not. They knew exactly what they were doing to you and exactly where it was leading. … This is your day to tell your story to America of what’s happening right now on our shores. This is not Germany with the gestapo coming in or Russia with the KGB coming in. This is right here in America—right here with our own government.”
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