Posted on 06/03/2013 11:02:56 PM PDT by neverdem
Sometimes when you’re writing part of a column you keep getting close to the meaning of what you want to say but you don’t quite get there, the full formulation of the idea eludes you. Then two days later, relaxing in conversation with friends, the thought comes to you whole, and you think: That’s what I meant to say. That’s what I was trying to get.
This week I had one of those moments. I kept trying, the paragraph kept not quite working, the deadline came.
I got an email last night that had the effect of a clarifying conversation. It was from a smart friend who works in government. He understood the point I was trying to make about how the current IRS scandal is different from previous ones and more threatening to the American...
--snip--
But my friend got to the essence. He wrote, “The left likes to say, ‘Watergate was worse!’ Watergate was bad—don’t get me wrong. But it was elites using the machinery of government to spy on elites. . . . It’s something quite different when elites use the machinery of government against ordinary people. It’s a whole different ball game.”
It is.
That’s exactly what I meant.
In previous IRS scandals it was the powerful abusing the powerful—a White House moving against prominent financial or journalistic figures who, because of their own particular status or the machineries at their disposal, could pretty much take care of themselves. A scandal erupts, there are headlines, and then people go on their way. The dreadful thing about this scandal, what makes it ominous, is that this is the elites versus regular citizens. It’s the mighty versus normal people. It’s the all-powerful directors of the administrative state training their eyes and moving on uppity and relatively undefended Americans...
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Cruz Calls for Abolishing IRS, Moving to ‘Simple Flat Tax’
Don't miss the forest for the trees, or let an opportunity go to waste. I'd prefer a national sales tax, with exceptions for real food and medicine.
The TEA Party should not fail to ram a stake through the heart of the statists and their progressive agenda! It's time to dismantle the IRS, Obamacare and the Department of Education, off the top of my head. That's just for starters.
The problem with a national sales tax is that rent seekers would forever be lobbying congress to exempt their products. This put politicians right back where we don’t want them, trading favors for campaign cash
It’s also a burden on business, making them the tax collector for the man.
I prefer a flat tax for these reasons.
With the size of the tax, there will be a black market the size of Montana, just as there already is with cigarettes and alcohol. With a black market that big, the government will become an active participant in EVERY transaction, even barter. If you don't want government intrusion, why do you want that?
This is very close to a point I've been making when people compare Benghazi to Watergate (often even having the nerve to say Watergate was WORSE!!).
In Benghazi, people died due to real-time incompetence/dereliction of duty on the part of responsible people. In Watergate, a POTUS concealed AFTER THE FACT a burglary, the victims of which were merely other politicians, barely even sentient organisms. Certainly not on a par with the value of the life, or even the inconveniencing, of a private citizen.
BUT...since Nixon was a Republican (and kind of a paranoid dick), Watergate was a big deal.
Employers are already tax collectors robbing our paychecks for the man! Sales taxes and such were what we grew our great nation on...job taxes are what has destroyed it...largely.
Great article. Great point that the IRS is going after US.
Sorry, but promoting the flat tax as a response misses the point entirely. Remember that they are also using the ATF, OSHA, EPA, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!
There is something very serious going on here and you want to play whack-a-mole with the Federal alphabet agencies?!
Now is the time to go after the head of the octopus, not cut of an arm.
This would "get the federal government out of the business of taxation and would instead allow for 50 different experiments in optimal taxation across the different states."
Businesses already collect sales tax for the man.
Whatever tax regime one prefers, it should have one and only one objective - raising revenue. Social and financial goals should be addressed by separate legislation.
Because I don't want an IRS. Nothing is perfect in this world. We should favor investments and savings. A ‘Simple Flat Tax’ will be dogged by requests for deductions and exemptions. Let the states collect it. States can behave like the original intent of the Constitution.
Peggy Noon an
Regardless
Part of the problem not the solution
An emotive beltway woman daft to the winds of discontent
I don't think that you read what I wrote in comment# 1 after the link.
The author still didn't quite "get there."
These aren't mere scandals. They're crimes.
At best, the attacks represent independent attempts at self-preservation by the administrative state. The Tea Party is hostile to all alphabet agencies, and they simply fought back.
At worst, and probably closest to the truth, these crimes represent an acceleration of rat tactics to eliminate opposition and create a de facto one party state.
As you pointed out, since several agencies colluded, it means they were coordinated by higher ups. The higher ups above the cabinet level is the White House.
Nixon was a piker.
The only way to abolish the IRS is to replace the income tax with a National Retail Sales Tax, like the FairTax.
A “Flat Tax” is still an income tax, and the IRS would remain large and intrusive, even in the “Flat Tax” world. IOW, as long as Americans are required to report their income to the government, there would be government poobahs interested in finding out who was telling the truth about their income.
In the FairTax regime, Americans would be encouraged and rewarded for earning as much money as they were capable of, and taxed on it when and only when they consumed it.
Imagine that! Having the FReedom to work, earn, save and invest without government interference!
How much money a working person earned would be nobody’s business but the working person!
The real issue is FReedom, folks.
All else is window dressing.
To find out for yourself how the FairTax works, check it out at http://www.fairtax.org.
We simply must not let this opportunity to abolish the IRS pass us by!
The fair tax is the best way to go!
Even if we grant that there will be a sizable underground economy (a “black market”) under the FairTax (which I don’t), the profits FRom the black market will, at some point in time, be taxed.
The existing “black market” is sizable — I have seen estimates ranging up to one trillion dollars, and ALL of that money is not taxed.
Do some research on the subject “FairTax and the underground economy” and you will come to understand that the underground economy siphons a great deal of money out of the economy under the current system.
Due to the fact that under the FairTax, all consumers are treated equally (same tax rate on purchases) one can make a credible argument that the underground economy will shrink under the FairTax.
Bump
The “underground economy” arguments don’t move me an inch ... We abolish the IRS and put each states INDIVIDUAL revenue departments in charge of collecting the “FairTax” just as they NOW ARE with state sales taxes.. it’ll just be a larger cut... no change in needed manpower or expense to businesses, just a simple one time reprogram of their cash registers... Let the states retain a large percentage ,, say 75% in-state and only forward 25% to D.C. as an incentive to correctly collect the taxes...
Totally agree with your post.
If a scandal erupts in DC and nobody in the MSM covers it, is it still a scandal?
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