Posted on 03/31/2015 5:52:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
The IRS commissioner on Tuesday brushed aside GOP proposals to abolish his agency, insisting the U.S. would have to have a tax collector one way or another.
“You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel better,” the agency’s chief, John Koskinen, said after a speech at the National Press Club.
Republicans have heaped even more criticism upon the agency than usual over the last 22 months because of its improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) perhaps has made the most prominent calls to get rid of the IRS. While launching his presidential bid earlier in March, he floated the idea of “a simple flat tax that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.”
“Imagine abolishing the IRS,” he added.
Koskinen said Tuesday that, even under the simplest of tax codes, the federal government would need an agency to collect revenue and administer the tax code, something Cruz’s own aides have also admitted.
“Somebody has to collect the money, and then somebody also has to make sure when you fill in the small card, you’re putting in the right numbers,” Koskinen said.
But Koskinen also said he understands why politicians seek to tap into public anger at the IRS. Conservatives have become increasingly angry at the IRS because of the Tea Party controversy, but Koskinen insisted that an overly complicated tax code spurred much of the anger at his agency.
“I think that’s a lot of what’s behind, you know, ‘get rid of the IRS.’ It’s really ‘get rid of this complicated tax code.’ And to that extent, I think that’s a reasonable goal,” Koskinen said.
Koskinen made his comments after a speech in which he said that the agency was doing its best to put the controversies of the last few years behind it. In addition to the Tea Party investigations, Congress has also rapped the IRS for excessive spending on conferences.
Congressional investigators have accused the central figure in the Tea Party controversy — Lois Lerner, who formerly led the IRS division overseeing tax-exempt groups — of using her personal email account to conduct agency business.
Scrutiny of that practice has only grown in recent weeks, after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged not having an official government account while heading the department. Clinton is expected to announce her own presidential bid in the coming weeks.
Koskinen said Tuesday that the IRS has clear rules barring staffers from using personal accounts for their public work and that he strictly follows that policy. But the IRS chief also acknowledged that “we have 87,000 people. Does that mean no one is doing it? I can’t guarantee you that. But I can guarantee we’re keeping a close watch on it.”
To illustrate how seriously the IRS takes that policy, Koskinen noted that he had sent draft congressional testimony to his home computer for editing early in his tenure.
“Within a couple days, I had a visitor from IT security,” the commissioner said, adding technology staffers quickly got him “a computer and a printer for home from the IRS.”
“I have never, other than sending a couple of pieces of draft testimony to my email account, certainly never discussed IRS business on my own personal account,” he added.
I know how to replace the entire IRS with one clerk in the Treasury Dept. It would be very easy.
I’m fantasizing a Reagan moment like when he fired all the air traffic controllers....only this time it would be IRS employees. ..I can dream
They never do this.. They refuse to do what they can do. They act (act) like they are afraid of dealing with the liberal spin the msm will put out on them. They act because they know exactly how to handle it. They don’t want to handle it. Because they don’t want to change it.
Ripley: I say we take off and nuke the entire agency from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Hudson: Fnnn’ A!
Burke: Hold on a second. This installation has a substantial dollar value attached to it.
Ripley: They can *bill* me.
Burke: Okay, I know this is an emotional moment for all of us. I know that. But let’s not make snap judgments, please. This is clearly an important agency we’re dealing with and I don’t think that you or I, or *anybody*, has the right to arbitrarily exterminate it.
Ripley: Wrong.
Vasquez: Yeah, watch us.
How did the United States of America ever survive before it was cursed with the IRS?
It isn't just anger at the abuses directed at the Tea Party that is motivating conservatives, it's anger on the part of people across the political spectrum that the agency is now the enforcer for 0bamacare and exists in a near vacuum of oversight, and that IRS toadies blatantly turn their office of trust into a political weapon and suffer no consequences.
There’s special place in Hell for these IRS directors doing tax returns for the likes of Al Capone, ted kennedy and al sharpton.
Congress to IRS: “Technically, you may be correct that Congress cannot abolish the IRS. However, what if we reduced your operating budget to ZERO dollars, then the dedicated employees of the IRS would work for free, isn’t that true?”
Just go to the Fair Tax and that should eliminate about 90% of the people currently employed with the IRS. Take the remaining and rename the department to something more appropriate to it’s new duties. Give them a few calculators and tell them to add it up as it comes in.
It would be fun to see these jerks wet their pants if Ted Cruz gets the Republican nomination.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.