Chenoweth And Crapo Promise Irs Hearings

Republican U.S. Reps. Helen Chenoweth and Michael Crapo will conduct local hearings later this year on alleged abuses by the Internal Revenue Service.

Chenoweth made the announcement Friday during a town hall meeting with about 100 constituents.

Until recent Senate hearings, Congress lacked the “moral courage” to stand up to the IRS, she said. But since the hearings, the agency’s abuses have become a main topic among “upset and angry” people calling her office, she said.

Chenoweth has long favored abolishing the tax-collecting agency. Many supporters who came to see her agreed with that stance.

“They have too much power,” said Jeanette Tallent of Boise. “They are a law unto themselves.”

The local hearings would be part of a national effort by Republicans in Congress to pump up discontent over the IRS. The Senate hearings revealed an agency that bullies people and pressures its employees to keep churning through returns for any extra dollars.

Chenoweth told supporters that IRS workers are under orders to find $1,000 an hour in extra taxes from individual returns and $2,900 a hour from corporations.

Her distrust of the agency is part of the reason Chenoweth has supported either a 17 percent flat income tax or a national sales tax. She said either change could mean eliminating tens of thousands of IRS employees.