Atlanta, GA - Paul Coverdell has gone on the radio in a desperate attempt to cover up the massive problems with random audits he helped create. In a new 30-second campaign radio spot, Coverdell has tried to sell himself as a savior of the people by fighting random IRS audits. However, Coverdell and his Republican colleagues in the Senate were the ones who created the “random audit” problem for Georgians in the first place. The IRS began randomly auditing the working families in Georgia in 1995 in an attempt to carry out wishes of Republican Senators, including Coverdell, who were complaining about fraud with the Earned Income Tax Credit. Because many Georgians claim the Earned Income Tax Credit in their returns, the state has been disproportionately affected by the Republican initiative. In addition, Paul Coverdell claims to have led the fight against random audits by introducing tough legislation… that didn’t work. Coverdell waited five and a half years to introduce a measure addressing the random audit problem. The legislation, offered as an amendment in May, failed overwhelmingly 37-60 in the Senate. Among the 60 Senators who voted against the Coverdell legislation were 19 members of Coverdell’s so-called “Republican team”, including Phil Gramm, Richard Shelby, and Jeff Sessions. In July, Coverdell proposed a “Sense of the Senate” resolution about random audits. Sense of the Senate resolutions are merely rhetorical - they have no legal effect on IRS bureaucrats or anyone else. Commenting on this tactic, the editors of the Washington Post said, “The Senate has perfected still another device for looking as if it is taking strong action when it is only pumping air.” Coverdell’s opponent, Michael Coles noted, “It has become quite evident that Paul Coverdell thinks he can fool Georgians into believing that he is working for them when his record clearly shows that he has done nothing to help Georgia families, but plenty to harm them. Paul Coverdell succeeded in helping create the system of random audits that targeted Georgians, but he failed in his election year attempt to pass legislation to battle the same problem. The fact is, Coverdell has failed to take on the IRS as he has claimed.” # # # |
