Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
“Marx is on our doorstep right now”
“I’ve heard from bankers, community bankers, and credit union presidents who are concerned about this. But I have literally heard from thousands of North Dakotans who bank with great concern. In many cases, it’s a phone call from somebody who just wants to know if it’s true and if it’s true do I know about it. They’re so frightened for very good reason – for all the reasons you’ve heard.
“We are talking about some of the most private of information being shared. Turning bank presidents, bankers, community bankers, credit union lenders, and tellers into spies for the IRS. It sends shivers.
“But here’s what bothers me so much: it should surprise us but it doesn’t that this Administration who has gone from incremental steps towards socialism tovast leaps towards socialism. I mean, Marx is on our doorstep right now. It shouldn’t surprise us that they have the boldness to do this.
“Here’s what bothers me as much as anything: this proposal is built on a premise that there are a bunch of guilty people out there. There’s a presumption of guilt. Why else would you need more agents to go after people that buy a car. And that’s bothersome. The premise of that in our free system is bothersome to me.
“I think one of the craziest parts of the whole thing is even if for a moment you were going to buy into the notion that there are a whole bunch of people who aren’t paying ‘fair share’ … This proposal doesn’t even accomplish what they claim they want to accomplish by the proposal.
“So what is the real motive? It gets back to what I said earlier: They’ve always been about incremental steps toward socialism, and now they’ve decided to take a great big leap while they can hold all three levers of power in this town. And we as Republicans will do everything we can to stop it.”