by Peter G. de Krassel
The IRS scrutiny and screening of Tea Party and Patriot applications for non-profit tax-exempt status is inexcusable and un-American.
Tax abuse hearings are definitely in order.
The taxpayer abuse hearings that Senate Republicans held in early 1998 were designed to show that the IRS is out of control. They buttressed their case with tales of tax agents in flak jackets storming houses and forcing teenage girls to strip at gunpoint.
The Republicans want nothing less than “to pull the current income tax code out by its roots and throw it away so it can never grow back,” Representative Bill Archer regularly tells audiences. Archer was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, where tax bills originate. Enough spin-doctoring. Just do it.
In March 1998, Senator Tim Hutchison, Republican of Arkansas, introduced a bill, which quickly found many co-sponsors, that would have repealed the Internal Revenue Code beginning in 2002. Well, guess what? It didn’t happen. More spin. The Republicans want to eliminate taxes on capital gains, dividends, rents, royalties and interest. Doing so, they say, would bolster savings and investment and help the economy.
This all sounds wonderful. But the reality is, it’s been going on for years. Once the political pressure and cameras are gone, congressmen get back to increasing taxes rather than reducing them. Political spin at its finest.
“When a party can’t think of anything else, they always fall back on lower taxes. It has a magic sound to a voter, just like Fairyland is spoken of and dreamed of by all children. But no child has ever seen it; neither has any voter ever lived to see the day when his taxes were lowered,” Will Rogers lamented in 1924!
Minnesota’s former Governor Jesse Ventura is more direct. “The IRS has become corrupt, greedy, and way too powerful. Our tax system as it currently exists is a nightmare. It’s stuffed with loopholes and unfair advantages. With the income tax system we have now, the IRS has almost unlimited power. They can take as much of your money as they want, and unless you’re self-employed, they take it before you even get your check.
“Our forefathers would be appalled to hear that today the government gets your money before you do. The IRS is even allowed to act in direct contradiction to the Constitution. Do you know what an audit does? It assumes you’re guilty. You have to prove yourself innocent. That’s the exact opposite of the way our justice system works.”
Excessive taxes discourage the production of income and capital growth.
America’s tax code is long overdue for an overhaul that will encourage the production of income and growth.
The new tax code should be made simpler and fairer. It should encourage saving and reward companies bringing jobs back to America.
A smart revised tax code should also abolish the IRS and have the 50 state tax collection agencies collect federal taxes and remit them to the feds Treasury Department. That would be a big part of the solution to today’s myriad of economic problems. It is up to We the Apathetic Maids to sweep in the necessary reforms.