House Proceeding 04-05-06 on Apr 5th, 2006 :: 2:27:03 to 2:30:40
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2:26:45 to 2:27:03( Edit History Discussion )

Danny K. Davis: due by the united states citizens to the i.r.s., and these private collection firms are going to charge up to 25% commission, 25% commission. so for every dollar they collect from the taxpayer,

2:27:03 to 2:27:19( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: they are going to keep 25 cents. now what's interesting is, i asked certain questions, and i discovered that a federal employee in the internal revenue service who collects taxes, their overhead

2:27:03 to 2:30:40( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Eddie Bernice Johnson

2:27:19 to 2:27:32( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: is about 53 cents -- excuse me five cents on the dollar, five cents on the dollar. the private collection agencies are going to get 25 cents on the dollar. so i asked the commissioner of

2:27:32 to 2:27:45( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: the internal revenue service, i said, mr. commissioner, why are you giving away taxpayer money? federal employees to collect taxes cost five cents on the dollar, are you giving 25 cents on the

2:27:45 to 2:27:54( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: dollar to a private firm to collect these taxes, why are you giving away 20 cents of our money? and he said, well, you know, the president doesn't like big government. and so we are going to

2:27:54 to 2:28:10( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: privatize it in essence, he was saying, we are going to give it to the private sector so we don't have to have it on our books that we are paying people to collect taxes. i said wait a

2:28:10 to 2:28:23( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: minute. the bottom line is you are wasting money. am i correct, sir? and he said, yes we are. i said wouldn't it make sense, mr. commission of the i.r.s., to hire -- by the way we have been carrying

2:28:23 to 2:28:36( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: hundreds of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars of receiveables from taxpayers who didn't pay their taxes on our books for decades so if we hired some federal employees to add

2:28:36 to 2:28:53( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: to the i.r.s. to collect taxes, they would have plenty of work for their whole career. isn't this a waste of money, mr. commissioner? and he said yes and i said isn't there one other element that

2:28:53 to 2:29:03( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: you find frightening? to have a private company handling the private details of a taxpayers' basic and -- taxpayer's most important financial documents? doesn't that concern you, sir? he said well,

2:29:03 to 2:29:13( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: yes, actually it does and he pointed to some effort in new jersey where they tried to do it and it was rife with some corruption and he was concerned about it and they were going to take steps.

2:29:13 to 2:29:27( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: i said you're worried about the corruption, about the violation itself citizens' privacy by hiring these private tax collection firms and you're going to lose 20 cents on a dollar because --

2:29:27 to 2:29:45( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: it cost 25 cents for these firms versus five cents for the i.r.s. employee. and you're wasting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money. and he had no answer. mr. delahunt: let me thank

2:29:45 to 2:29:59( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: you for asking those questions. and i think that you, as you explained it, i was thinking that you found something rare, and that is somebody in this administration who gave you a

2:29:59 to 2:30:10( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: straight answer. mr. rothman: i got another one today. i'm brand-new to this and i just wanted to tell you what i found out today. mr. delahunt: and an honest answer by the way. mr. rothman: i thanked

2:30:10 to 2:30:26( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: him for that. he said it was wasteful. he said that's the budget the president gave me. today i interviewed as a member of our subcommittee we had a hearing, mr. speaker, we had the secretary

2:30:26 to 2:30:40( Edit History Discussion )

Eddie Bernice Johnson: of the treasury in front of us, mr. snow. and i said mr. secretary, a lot of people say that tax cuts that go to the richest people in the country, people making over a million dollars a year but

2:30:40 to 2:30:59( Edit History Discussion )

Danny K. Davis: if you added up all the tax cuts, people say that we get money back from these tax cuts and it fills up our coffers in the government far beyond what we cut in terms of taxes for the