The public should fear that Democrats have passed new laws that weaponize the already abusive Internal Revenue Service.
For nearly a century, the president and members of Congress have used the IRS to harass and denounce political opponents. In addition to collecting revenues to fund governments, the IRS is a hit man who destroys reputations and criminalizes dissenters.
A lot of pain can be inflicted under the guise of a tax "audit". The bill, which President Joe Biden signed into law on Tuesday, has been mislabeled the Control Inflation Act and means more audits and investigations. The legislation nearly doubles funding for the IRS's enforcement arm and adds as many as 80,000 agents and auditors.
Meanwhile, despite the Russian and Chinese attacks, Biden is starving the Pentagon and demanding little money to fight inflation. But his bill would make the IRS three-quarters the size of the Marine Corps. Who is Biden at war with?
While this bill strengthens his IRS muscle, it does not allow the IRS to impose serious criminal penalties for leaking confidential taxpayer information or targeting political targets. History shows the dangers ahead.
In the 1930s, Franklin Delano, his President Roosevelt, used his IRS to target newspapers opposed to his New Deal policies and opponents such as Huey, his Senator Long and Father Coughlin. harassed.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the IRS granted FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover access to the files so that he could appoint the National Council of Churches, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King Jr.
}
President John Kennedy launched the ・It targets right-wing groups such as the Enterprise Institute think tank and the John Birch Society.
President Richard Nixon's attorney, John Dean , admitted that the administration used existing federal institutions to overwhelm our political opponents. The IRS was Nixon's weapon of choice. The impeachment article against Nixon included accusations that he ordered "income tax audits or other income tax investigations in a discriminatory manner."
President Bill Clinton's administration has brought his IRS to justice against accusers Jennifer Flowers and Paula Jones.
President Barack Obama's IRS Targets Tea Party Group and Other Conservative Non-Profits, Delaying Their Tax-Exempt Status to Raise Funds Ahead of 2012 Presidential Election blocked. The scandal erupted in 2013 when his IRS official, Lois Lerner, admitted to the target. Still, Lerner and other of her IRS employees were not charged with anything and she retired with full benefits.
And the abuse continues. Biden's IRS leaked confidential tax materials from Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and other billionaires to left-wing publication ProPublica.Tax information is required to be kept confidential. We Americans have no choice but to provide it. But the IRS, in concert with the left-wing media , helped Democrats spread false claims that a tax crackdown was necessary.
} NPR praised bill Biden just signed, calling it "in progress" for wealthy tax evaders. After', Slate magazine don't buy the 'supercharged' IRS
rhetoric. Tax evasion is not as serious a problem in America as it isin many other countries. Polls show Americans condemn tax fraud.The United States has one of the highest voluntary tax compliance rates in the world at around 88%, much higher than Western Europe .
It is true that the IRS needs funds to improve its services to taxpayers. This includes answering phone calls and processing tax returns. It includes moving from outdated paper files to the latest technology. But the new law allocates very little to these priorities, allocating most of the $45 billion or more to "Enforcement," which includes hiring and arming agents.
According to the bipartisan Joint Taxation Commission,90% of the funds raised through enhanced auditscome from people making less than her $200,000 a year. deaf. An audit can result in a tsunami of requests for government documents and repeated visits from her IRS agents over months or years. Most people don't have an accountant or lawyer to protect them from the pain.
Worst of all, history shows that the growing influence of government agencies is used to silence and punish political commentators. It is a serious blow to our freedom.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lieutenant Governor of New York.
Twitter: @Betsy_McCaughey
