BUDGET DEBATE AT CORRUPT AGENCY MISSES THE POINT …
The U.S. House of Representatives is debating cuts to the enforcement budget of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – an agency which receives $11 billion a year to implement America’s sprawling, antiquated and anti-competitive tax code.
Oh, and to discriminate against limited government groups in the process … (then lie about that and try to cover it up).
Yeah, those guys …
Anyway, the “Republican-controlled” House is contemplating IRS cuts ranging from $341 million to $1 billion – which could take the agency back to 2003 funding levels.
“The IRS has been targeting American taxpayers, as we’ve learned, for their political beliefs for the last four or five years,” U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan said. “During this period, a culture of shading the truth was fostered and developed by directors and administrators throughout the IRS. Now this culture within the IRS has grown to one of stonewalling, double-talk and mistrust. It’s up to Congress to use the power of the purse … to rein in the IRS and force them to conduct their analysis in an unbiased manner.”
Okay … not arguing any of that. But our question is simple: Why stop there? Why spend another dime on an agency that discriminates against Americans on the basis of their ideology? Especially when eliminating the IRS and moving America to a simpler, fairer and more competitive consumption-based tax structure would dramatically boost our economic output.
Which is sucking wind, last time we checked …
It’s nice that “Republicans” in Washington want to cut the IRS’ budget – but that’s not what the situation calls for. Sure, we support such cuts – but until the IRS is done away with entirely American taxpayers will remain enslaved to an intrusive agency that’s levying an economically destructive tax in an inherently discriminatory fashion.
The IRS doesn’t need to be gutted … it needs to be vaporized out of existence. Only then can the full potential of the American consumer economy, jobs market and investment engine be unleashed.
23 comments
Right, let’s reduce the IRS’s ability to catch corporate tax cheats even further. And while we’re at it, let openly political groups continue to enjoy tax-exempt status, so they won’t even have to pay state sales tax on all the bumper stickers they buy.
don’t forget “make poor people pay their share.” come on man, I count on you for the far left talking points.
If we did away with the IRS, then maybe all of the donors to 501(c)(4) groups would come out of the closet– so to speak.
You must be a little confused. “Make poor people pay ‘their share'” is a far right talking point, hoping that the uninformed voter will not realize that “the poor” pay plenty of taxes other than federal income.
Romney got bit in the ass over his repetition of that 47% factoid. Well, that and the fact that he was a vulture capitalist enriching himself at the expense of the working man.
Let’s force them to focus on corporate tax cheats.
But corporate tax cheats are the ones who fund their campaigns and super PACs.
Well, there is that…
Since the IRS should be above the political fray at a minimum, there should be a clear separation from the White House. I’d be in favor of gutting it but I haven’t seen a workable plan yet. What we probably should do is go to a flat 10% rate with no exemptions of any kind for any one.
Amen!!
It costs me a LOT of $$$ every year just to pay tax prep.
We need a flat tax and do our own returns on a post card!!
Obama and Congress are both worthless, Dems. and Repubs.!!
Vote out ALL and while we are at it, start with Haley and the bunch in Cola Town!
Why not just go with a 10% federal sales tax. then everyone would pay their fair share. no under the table people. no exemption issues. no tax return. it would also give people an incentive to save money. money saved is not taxed. the best reason for it would be the savings to the us taxpayers of no IRS!!!
Just the political groups with occupy or 99% in their name. Continue to tax groups with Tea Party names.
If the budget gets cut and that results in personnel cuts, who goes out the door? Not the top officials and administrators. It is the bottom of the ladder people.
OK, lets go to Sic Willie’s consumption tax. What are the rules? Any exemptions? You know like prescription medicines. Who administers all this? Who checks to make sure tax charged is tax sent in? I know, lets create an agency. We can call it IRS. Oh wait.
Don’t you get sick of the sheer stupidity of these people?
You tax it like many states handle state sales taxes. You don’t tax necessities like food, medicine, clothing.
We also tax churches, schools, etc. as if they were a business. The way rules are now anyone who is an ordained minister out of the back of some magazine can set up a church and funnel money through it untaxed.
If you have a consumption tax, there should be no need for an IRS as is, because everything is taxed at the register. All you need are CPA’s to collect and appropriate the funds from vendors.
You miss the point. Who VERIFYS that the correct amount of tax was charged and it ALL went into the US Treasury? Who makes sure that the exceptions you mentioned are properly applied? Who hires and pays these “CPAs”?
It’s probably be more secure and realistic than the current system. Who hires and pays them for the IRS now? I’m not saying the IRS will go away, I’m saying it could be greatly downsized. For example, you wouldn’t need thousands of auditors to do individual taxpayer audits.
The individual taxpayer audits are mostly done by computers. It is only when items are determined to be outside normal ranges that the computer kicks them out and humans get involved.
Well there’d be less of a need for them then too.
FITS says: “Limited government groups”….LMAO…Did ‘Pootlian coin that term for you FITS???…
Obama targeted CONSERVATIVE Groups, you cheap sell-out, Dumb@$$….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/14/brookings-the-federal-government-is-failing-now-more-than-ever-and-it-keeps-getting-worse/
“Republicans exploited the Democratic cowardice by doing everything in their power to undermine performance. They stonewalled needed policy changes, and made implementation of new programs as difficult as possible; they cut budgets, staffs, and collateral capacity to a minimum, proving the adage that the logical extension of doing more with less is doing everything with nothing; they used the presidential appointments process to decapitate key agencies, and appointed more than their share of unqualified executives; and they muddied mission, tolerated unethical conduct, and gamed the performance measure process to guarantee failing scores for as many government policies as possible.”
Just part of the GOP’s plan to destroy our democratic republic and turn it into a theocratic oligarchy.
Actually they are aiming for a kleptocratic oligopoly.
cutting the IRS enforcement budget means giving free passes to billionaires to cheat on their taxes. it costs typical american taxpayers more money to cut the IRS enforcement budget. it rewards the kind of people who sponsor creeps like Fits.
“Discriminates on the basis of ideology?” If you want those seeking tax-exempt status to be free from inquiry about their political activities your beef is with congress who passed that tax law- not the agency charged with enforcing it. But the comments below about the Republican desire to dismantle progressive government are apropos the true situation here.
Not true. The Congress didn’t pass a law that said scrutinize organizations with Tea Party or Patriot in their name more than ones with 99% or occupy in their name.