Posted on 08/13/2015 5:23:45 AM PDT by Javeth
Freedom to travel is a fundamental and internationally recognized human right. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states:
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Congress ratified the UDHR on April 2, 1992. But it’s now having second thoughts.
The “right to travel” makes some politicians very nervous. Consider the issue from their viewpoint. Leaving the country makes it more difficult to detain you if the Feds suspect you of a crime, such as withdrawing lawfully earned cash from your bank account. It’s also less convenient to surveil you if your political opinions don’t toe the party line. And above all, it’s harder for Big Brother to grab your assets.
So, it’s hardly surprising that in May, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced legislation that would seize the passport of any US citizen with “seriously delinquent tax debts.” The proposal, part of an omnibus trade bill, isn’t new. Indeed, this is the fourth year in a row that Hatch, or other Big Government apologists, have introduced this measure.
The proposal requires no hearing or any other due process to grab your passport. All that’s needed is for the IRS to issue a “Notice of Levy” for any amount greater than $50,000.This is a letter informing you that the IRS thinks you owe it money.
Sure, $50,000 sounds like a lot of dough. But when it comes to tax liabilities, it’s practically chump change.
In June, the House of Representatives removed the passport revocation provision from the trade bill. But the measure isn’t dead. The Senate version of the bill still contains this measure.
The bill is now in conference, where Senator Hatch and his cronies must convince their colleagues that revoking the passports of US citizens who might owe money to the IRS is just, equitable, and compatible with the US Constitution (not to mention the UDHR).
In case you wondered, it’s not just Big Government “conservatives” like Orrin Hatch who support this measure. There’s bipartisan support for the concept. Indeed, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced the first proposal of this type in 2012, following a 2011 General Accountability Office recommendation. Obviously, politicians from both the “left” and “right” want to restrict travel options for US citizens. That means that even if passport revocation for back taxes doesn’t pass this year, the proposal will resurface.
You might wonder what the need is for this measure, since the IRS can already apply to a federal court for a legal writ called Ne Exeat Republica. In the context of unpaid tax, this writ forbids you from leaving the US until you pay up. But to invoke this measure, the IRS must first obtain a court order to “ground” you. That’s inconvenient, since it involves that pesky concept of “due process” the Feds want to avoid at all costs. Senator Hatch and his colleagues want to remove that obstacle as soon as possible.
We ARE pre-Soviet Russia, with a little Mao thrown in.
And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!
Solzhenitsyn
Of course, this would never be abused. Oh no, not a chance.
There’s a solution to that: repeal the 10th.
There’s a solution to that: repeal the 17th, sorry didn’t mean the 10th!!
Agree completely. And, it’s tragic. If Obama wanted to wreck the patriotic fighting spirit, this is a good piece of the strategy. How can you be proud of citizenship when the law seeks to loot you?
That’s why Swede Ingemar Johansson, world heavyweight champion from Sweden, moved out of Sweden.
“That’s why Swede Ingemar Johansson, world heavyweight champion from Sweden, moved out of Sweden.”
And later the same for tennis champ Bjorn Borg
Is ABBA even still there?
“Is ABBA even still there?”
Anni-Frid (Frida) is the only one that has left Sweden, I believe. Lives in Switzerland. She wasn’t really Swedish to start, with parents of Norwegian and German origins. She also owns homes in the UK.
That’s correct about Frida, they were forced to leave Norway because her father was a Wehrmacht soldier stationed there during the occupation.
Yes that’s true about Frida, interesting bit of background she has and I believe you are correct, she’s currently resident in Switzerland. Beautiful home right up around the Alps as far as I know.
Yes and what’s so appalling is how the RINO GOPe esp in the Senate is so enthusiastic to jump on Obama’s loot the people brigade with him. Obama had help from the GOPe members of the Gang of Eight in passing that monstrous immigration bill in the Senate in 2013 (Grahamnesty, Flake, Rubio, McCain) as well as Ayotte, Hatch, Kirk, Hoeven, Corker, Alexander, Collins, Wicker, with Cruz inexplicably supporting the H1b visa though he was against amnesty— and with McConnell himself of course failing to rally opposition). in passing Obamatrade, in restricting guns, and now in restricting travel and other basic liberties with Hatch as the ringleader. Obama couldn’t wreck the fighting spirit of the American people without the willing connivance of the “opposition”, and in the Senate GOPe, he has the perfect traitorous turncoats to lend him a hand.
How quickly we have become the Soviet Union, in EVERY way.
Yes that’s exactly the problem, with this new law the IRS would be able to use such “mistakes” to detain and confiscate assets from law-abiding US citizens. It’s the perfect totalitarian tool to use against political enemies and those who don’t tow the establishment line.
The 17th is long overdue for its repeal, the 18th (Prohibition) was repealed three amendments later but sadly the Senate missed the real infringement on our liberties!
Ha ha, yeah we were just noting that above, Al Sharpton would probably be among the “special Americans” to whom the USA’s new Soviet travel restriction law would not apply!
Sad but true, with the Senate GOPe RINOs now joining in with Obama, the slow creep toward allowing authorities to confiscate the assets of political enemies and law-abiding citizens has now become an explicit aspect of US law. It always starts with PC and syrupy media appeals to the “vulnerable” (hence the draconian US laws surrounding child and spousal support as a way to infringe on basic freedoms), but then marches along fro there once the precedent is set. It’s why any infringement on basic freedoms is not acceptable.
And precisely one of the GOP candidates (Rand Paul) has said even a single word about the need to repeal or reform FATCA.
Americans sit on their butts and allow the income tax system to persist. They deserve all the fascism that comes because of it.
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.