Monday, May 20, 2013
The IRS's Job Is To Violate Our
Liberties
By Ron Paul
"What do you expect when you target the President?" This is
what an
Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) agent allegedly said to the head of a
conservative organization that was being audited after calling for the
impeachment of then-President Clinton. Recent revelations that IRS agents
gave "special scrutiny" to organizations opposed to the current
administration's policies suggest that many in the IRS still believe
harassing the president's opponents is part of their job.
As troubling as these recent reports are, it would be a grave mistake to
think that IRS harassment of opponents of the incumbent president is a
modern, or a partisan, phenomenon. As scholar Burton Folsom pointed out
in his book New Deal or Raw Deal, IRS agents in the 1930s were
essentially "hit squads" against opponents of the New Deal. It
is well-known that the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon
Johnson used the IRS to silence their critics. One of the articles of
impeachment drawn up against
Richard
Nixon dealt with his use of the IRS to harass his political enemies.
Allegations of IRS abuses were common during the Clinton administration,
and just this week some of the current administration's defenders
recalled that antiwar and progressive groups alleged harassment by the
IRS during the Bush presidency.
The bipartisan tradition of using the IRS as a tool to harass political
opponents suggests that the problem is deeper than just a few
"rogue" IRS agents or even corruption within one, two, three or
many administrations. Instead, the problem lays in the extraordinary
power the tax system grants the IRS.
The IRS routinely obtains information about how we earn a living, what
investments we make, what we spend on ourselves and our families, and
even what charitable and
religious
organizations we support. Starting next year, the IRS will be collecting
personally identifiable health insurance information in order to ensure
we are complying with
Obamacare's mandates.
The current tax laws even give the IRS power to marginalize any
educational, political, or even religious organizations whose goals,
beliefs, and values are not favored by the current regime by denying
those organizations "tax-free" status. This is the root of the
latest scandal involving the IRS.
Considering the type of power the IRS excises over the American people,
and the propensity of those who hold power to violate liberty, it is
surprising we do not hear about more cases of politically-motivated IRS
harassment. As the first US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall
said, "The power to tax is the power to destroy" and who better
to destroy than one's political enemies?
The US flourished for over 120 years without an income tax, and our
liberty and prosperity will only benefit from getting rid of the current
tax system. The federal government will get along just fine without its
immoral claim on the fruits of our labor, particularly if the elimination
of federal income taxes are accompanied by serious reduction in all areas
of spending, starting with the military spending beloved by so many who
claim to be opponents of high taxes and big government.
While it is important for Congress to investigate the most recent scandal
and ensure all involved are held accountable, we cannot pretend that the
problem is a few bad actors. The very purpose of the IRS is to transfer
wealth from one group to another while violating our liberties in the
process; thus, the only way Congress can protect our freedoms is to
repeal the income tax and shutter the doors of the IRS once and for
all.
Dr. Ron
Paul, a medical doctor and longtime Texas Representative to the US
House, continues to promote and educate on issues of liberty through his
"Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk" column, pubished weekly
here.
http://www.thedailybell.com/29121/Ron-Paul-The-IRSs-Job-Is-To-Violate-Our-Liberties
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