Like many taxpayers, I personally get upset with the Internal Revenue Service when I file my taxes.
But I probably get angrier than the average taxpayer. That’s because I have first-hand knowledge of the waste and fraud in the federal budget, so it galls me that so much of my income is being diverted to the open sewer of Washington.
But I also want to be fair. It’s politicians who have created our monstrous tax code. And it’s politicians who have created the bloated spending programs that undermine our prosperity.
So they deserve most of the blame.
That being said, we shouldn’t let the IRS off the hook.
Never forget, after all, that this is the bureaucracy that – in a disgusting display of bias – interfered with the electoral process by targeting the President’s opponents.
And then awarded bonuses to itself for this corrupt behavior!
So when Neil Cavuto asked me whether the IRS deserved a bigger budget, you can see I was not exactly sympathetic.
There are two points from the interview that deserve a bit of elaboration.
First, I pointed out that the IRS budget is far bigger than it was 30 years ago, even after adjusting for inflation.
So the notion that the tax collectors are suffering from “savage” budget cuts is utter nonsense.
Not surprisingly, the IRS and its defenders like to compare today’s budget with the amount that was spent right after the faux stimulus, when every bureaucracy was gorging on other people’s money.
But as I explained in the interview, that’s very misleading.
Second, we have the bigger issue of how to deal with an ever-more sclerotic tax code and and never-ending demands for more money out of Washington.
Assuming one thinks turning America into Greece is an acceptable or desirable outcome, the IRS will need more money.
But this is precisely why I said at the end of the interview that we should say no. Simply stated, giving the IRS a bigger budget almost certainly means a continuation of bad policy.
But maybe, just maybe, if the IRS budget is held in check, the politicians will conclude that we need tax reform and spending restraint. Remember, when all other options are exhausted, politicians sometimes do the right thing.
By the way, I’m not the only person who is upset. George Will also is irked with the Internal Revenue Service and wrote a powerful indictment of the corrupt bureaucracy for the Washington Post.
He starts by observing that the slimy and biased Lois Lerner will probably get away with her crimes thanks to Obama Administration stonewalling and obstruction of justice.
Lois G. Lerner…, as head of the IRS tax-exempt organizations division, directed the suppression of conservative advocacy groups by delaying and denying them the exempt status that was swiftly given to comparable liberal groups. …through dilatory and incomplete responses to subpoenas, and unresponsive answers to congressional questions…Lerner’s name now has an indelible Nixonian stain, but there probably will be no prosecution. If the administration’s stonewalling continues as the statute of limitations clock ticks, Roskam says, “She will get away with it.” …Many thousands of Lerner’s e-mails that supposedly were irretrievably lost have been found, but not released. The Justice Department’s investigation, which was entrusted to a political appointee who was a generous contributor to Barack Obama’s campaign, is a stone in the stone wall.
It’s discouraging that Ms. Lerner won’t be held accountable for criminal actions, but Will points out that at least Congress has the ability to engage in real oversight to hopefully deter further misbehavior.
One place to begin is with the evidence — anecdotal but, in the context of proven IRS corruption, convincing — of other possibly punitive IRS behavior toward Republican contributors and other conservative activists. This justifies examining the IRS’s audit selection process. …Next, there should be hearings into the illegal disclosure of taxpayer information about conservative individuals and groups to the media and to liberal officials and groups.
And just in case anyone is tempted to feel sorry for the IRS, don’t forget that the bureaucracy continues to disregard the law.
Or, in some cases, to arbitrarily change the law.
…the IRS’s lawlessness has extended to its role in implementing the Affordable Care Act. The act says that federal subsidies shall be distributed by the IRS to persons who buy insurance through exchanges “established by the State.” …The court probably will rule that the IRS acted contrary to law. If so, the IRS certainly will not have acted contrary to its pattern of corruption in the service of the current administration.
Yup, he nailed it. A corrupt agency serving the interests of a corrupt White House.
P.S. Since we’re talking about taxation today, here’s a video from the oldie-but-goodie collection.
I can’t vouch for the veracity, but I gather this fellow was very upset by high property taxes.
As you might guess, my sympathies are with the Marquis de Maussabre.
Just as I applaud French entrepreneurs, American companies, Italian boat owners, Spanish movie patrons (and porn aficionados), California citizens, Greek shop owners, Facebook millionaires, Norwegian butter buyers, New York taxpayers, Bulgarian smokers, foreign cab drivers, New Jersey residents, Australian film stars, and everyone else who does their part to limit the amount of tax revenue flowing to governments.
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I don’t necessarily agree with your comments in the video segment. And I disagree that income tax is valid law. But federal judges, who are more politically biased than local appointed justices of the peace, will not enforce the law correctly if it is going to harm their wages. (Federal judges are worse than most state judges in terms jurist ability, including the not-so-supreme Court.)
But I have no problem with IRS code. It’s long but only some of it applies to 99.9% of the people. It is convoluted for the rich, corporations and politicians who scam the system, but the answer to the quagmire is simple: follow the Founders.
5% was enough to set them off and make them throw a revolution–we are long past that point (D.C. should already be burning). However, that is an acceptable figure, an acceptable threshold: 5%.
Every person and entity pays 5% of income totally for all taxes, services, fees for all levels of government. No sales, no licensing, no user fees, no nothing. No property taxes. No other taxes anywhere. (There are tweaks like prisoners having to support their confinement through honest efforts, i.e., work.)
The Feds, the states, the counties and cities can fight over how the 5% gets divided. Let them have the headaches they created by promising everything and delivering nothing of substance. Declare marshal law and lock up the whole damned government in Gitmo. When they die, they can released… yes, Sheldon, sarcasm.
5% is more than enough to run the whole nation. Those who have no income for whatever reason, would pay a $1000 or $100/month in taxes. No exceptions. Everyone pays; no deductions; no give backs/refunds; no nothing; 5%. But no other taxes.
The unAffordable Care Act is not a health care act, it is a tax act. (It is a lie to call it “health insurance”.) The 5% solution would necessarily eliminate that law.
5% of the Nation’s wealth is a hell of a lot of money. Also, two caveats–no new spending until all government debt is paid; what is collected for this year, 2015, cannot be spent until 2017 and has been fully accounted. Bitter but necessary.
BTW, the word “entitlement” does not appear in the founding documents. So you all better get a job.
That’s it. IRS mess fixed. N-E-X-T-!-! ©2015
“I won’t run, but if elected I’ll serve to the best of my abilities.”
Taxes are stealing.
The IRS and all their supporters, agents, assigns and heirs should be imprisoned for life. The fruits of their crimes returned to the rightful owners.
If after 230 years the fed.gov hasn’t figured out how to make a profit it should be permanently shut down.
FYI: the 16th Amendment was never correctly ratified is not good law.
There are very good reasons why taxing was omitted from the founding documents–you are living it. Taxes vexed the colonist so deeply that they threw the Tories and King out. It needs to be done again, but not so nicely as last time. ©2015
Although the politicians may well be the mechanism for the tax code and the regulatory excesses, it is expressly the voters fault that there is an abusive and corrupt bureaucracy that exists in this country. As long as we have ignorant voters and those that vote to gain more generous benefits, the politicians will be there, after all, we re-elect people that have been convicted of felony offenses to the offices that they hold and sometimes while they are still in jail/prison! Having a successful Constitutional Republic requires that the electorate have some semblance of intelligence and knowledge about who they are sending to represent them.
I simply do not understand the leftist approach of supporting such activity. Do they not realize that in so doing they set a precedent that allows a right-leaning administration to do the same? I do not support either activity, and I would suspect that the right leaning administration will return to a respect of constitutional law. But the precedent has certainly been set, and it is scary to think of just how far a future administration might take it. I’m not comparing Obama to Hitler, but I must say that this is how Hitler got away with his actions. The precedents had already been set, the public was ready for it, and he simply stepped in and filled the vacuum of leadership that the Germans and Austrians asked for.
jmanzano:
While I agree in principle, in practice bonus arrangements get perverted in a government setting, because there is no underlying profit motive. Savings in operations will become savings relative to overblown budget forecasts. Customer satisfaction will morph into answering the phone.
In the 70’s when I strongly recommended asset forfeiture on untaxed cigarettes as a way to enforce tax collection, I never anticipated how it would become the current wealth grab.
Motivate public service by rewarding them for savings in operations, and customer satisfaction sharing with them the savings they generate. Establish fines and jail system for adminstrative crimes. Allow the development of a bounty system for the identification of politicians requesting administrative favors. In other words, make it profitable to do the job honestly.
[…] WAIT, THERE’S MORE… […]
The actions of the IRS were motivated not by politics but by self preservation. Tax simplification means a smaller IRS. Groups and individuals that promote tax simplification are therefore the enemy of an IRS which seeks to expand its reach, as does every other government agency.
No, they should not receive more money, they should receive more jail time!
[…] By Dan Mitchell […]