It’s no small matter that the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting conservative groups for heightened scrutiny. The power to tax is the power to destroy, and there are few limits to what the IRS can do when exercising its taxation power.
Just an IRS demand for documents can virtually cripple an organization that can find itself needing to bring all hands on deck to comply with the demand. And if you’re a tax-exempt nonprofit and the IRS suddenly decides your tax-exempt status is not legitimate, it can demand a payment of back taxes that can spell the end of your organization.
We can already see that this scandal is bigger than the IRS first claimed. Initial claims that only low-level staffers were involved have been contradicted by new reports showing that higher-ups were aware of the targeting two years ago.
The White House will claim, of course, that it had nothing to do with this and was completely unaware of it. Congress should certainly not accept that claim on its face. House Republicans should stop at nothing to bring the truth about this matter to light, because most Americans don’t realize the power the IRS has to harass ordinary citizens.
Do we have evidence that the Obama political team drove this in any way? No, we do not. But given their history, I would leave no stone unturned looking for possible evidence that they did. If none is found, fine, they are exonerated. They may deserve the presumption of innocence in a legal sense, but if I were running the investigation, I would operate under the assumption that there is something to be found – and I would be determined to find it. Obviously, it wouldn’t be right to manufacture or trump up evidence that isn’t legitimate. But I doubt that would be necessary. Leaders of the IRS didn’t just decide for no reason that it was conservative groups who needed all this scrutiny. They know who their bosses are, and what the interests of their bosses are.
By the way, in addition to being outrageous and scandalous, this incident is a very good object lesson in why we need to replace and simplify our tax code. The conservative groups experiencing IRS harassment ended up on that position because they applied for status as tax-exempt nonprofits. Those who apply for exemptions are at the mercy or IRS bureaucrats who have no qualms about putting you through the ringer.
FairTax would eliminate the IRS entirely
The more we simplify the tax code – lowering rates and eliminating exemptions – the less power the IRS will have to force people and organizations through such rigmarole. When you need special treatment from the government, you are at the mercy of the government. A tax code that didn’t require you to seek such treatment would leave us all more freedom. The FairTax would eliminate the IRS entirely. My 9-9-9 plan would rob it of most of its power because everyone would pay the same rate and there would be no special treatment.
That seems more urgent now than ever, because it certainly appears we have an administration that is willing to use the IRS to punish its political opponents. Let’s expose what they’ve done, and let’s de-fang the IRS so it can’t be done again.
