You know its coming..
Posted on 06/08/2013 5:51:00 AM PDT by EXCH54FE
Is it right for our government to silence the voices of average Americans? What gives any agency the right to demand concerned citizens to give up their First Amendment rights?
This week I met six brave Americans who travelled to Capitol Hill to tell Congress what the Internal Revenue Service put them through. The only thing these civic-minded Americans did to incur this was try to share their principles with their communities. Their reward was to be alternately stonewalled and scrutinized by shameless bureaucrats.
Telling pro-life groups their IRS status hinged on them agreeing to not protest Planned Parenthood is not ok. Leaking donor information is not ok. Forcing Americans to give up by flooding them with reams of intrusive questions and document demands is not ok.
Becky Gerritson told us she was fearful for her country and that her government, that is supposed to work for every taxpayer, had “forgotten” their place.
Describing herself as “a born free, American woman – wife, mother and citizen,” she came to the Ways & Means Committee hearing to tell her government they forgot their place. Powerful words from a mom who never dreamed she would someday testify on Capitol Hill.
It is not the IRS’s responsibility to monitor any American’s speech. Nor should they ever assert any agenda.
Constitutional Law professor John Eastman, who chairs the National Organization for Marriage, testified that his organization’s confidential tax information ended up in the hands of the Human Right Campaign, which opposes traditional marriage. As he told our committee, if the IRS leaked his organization’s confidential tax documents, a “serious felony” was committed.
For the Laurens County Tea Party, the IRS process has made for a very long three years. After waiting for over two years to process the application, the IRS sought “extremely burdensome additional information”.
After cashing the Wetumpka Tea Party’s application fee check, the IRS waited over 450 days before sending an intrusive questionnaire requesting “90 pieces of additional information”.
The San Fernando Valley Patriots were warned about the penalty of perjury should they not answer all of the agency’s intrusive questions.
Why? Bureaucrats at the IRS had no legal right to these organization’s donor information, volunteer information or written communications.
Linchpins of Liberty Founder Kevin Kookogey found it disturbing that the IRS asked for the identities of their students. Would you want your minor child’s name given to the IRS?
It’s very chilling to be asked “Are you now or have you ever been...” questions. It’s chilling that an IRS bureaucrat sought to get Iowa Coalition for Life to give up their First Amendment right to protest Planned Parenthood. Sue Martinek’s question deserves an answer. “Why was the IRS protecting Planned Parenthood” against a ‘small Iowa prayer group’?
With three Congressional panels, including the Ways & Means Committee that I serve on, an Inspector General and many others digging deep, whoever gave the orders at the IRS can’t remain in the shadows for long.
Our nation’s tax code is so huge it holds back small businesses, creates annual stress on families – and as we are uncovering -- is used against those who disagree with the direction our country is headed.
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp says our entire tax system is “rotten at the core, and it must be ripped out so we can start fresh.” I completely agree.
While it still lacks major support in Congress, more and more Americans are beginning to see that the best solution is the Fair Tax solution. Wouldn’t we all rather spread the good news about real tax reform and have April 15th be just another day?
In addition to being a senior member of the House Ways & Means Committee, Texas Congressman Kevin Brady also chairs the Joint Economic Committee and is a co-sponsor of HR 25.
The fact that this question is even asked shows how far we’ve fallen.
So what are you and the rest of Congress going to do about thesevfelonies?
It’s not right. Those who have power are abusing it. If it isn’t stopped, they will wait a few months then start doing it again.
Yes, you get it. The question is one dumb damn question that should never be asked. If you are an American...it is simply understood.
It's called the constitution.
Folks, let's get off our duffs and begin the real protests or these people are going to sweep all this under the rug.
Six months from now, we are going to be looking back on these scandals just like we are Fast and Furious.
Hey, whatever happened to that scandal bout the guns and all? What was that called? Quick and angry...no no, I think it was...
These people are not our friends, they are power hungry misfits. They are at the very foundations of power, power to control each of our lives.
Let's begin to march on the halls of power. Write, call, demand....then rinse and repeat.
Edmund Burke said, “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Exactly. I don’t think Mr Washington, Mr Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and the other founders would be very happy with their countrymen today. The American people were given the greatest gift of all, freedom, and look what we’ve done with it. It’s shameful that we will be the generation that ruined America.
The days of complex ideas are over. Keep it simple. Tax every new good and service at the point of purchase at a single flat rate. Nothing else. No progressive prebate. No business taxes. No income taxes of any kind.
The first step is to eliminate the 16th Amendment.
Exactly. The fact that obama is still in office and not hiding in his bunker while the white house and capitol buildings burn to the ground and members of congress are hunted with dogs shows how far we’ve fallen.
Your post is spot on but we delude ourselves. The average American in this new normal bizzaro world know little about the scandalous recent events nor do they have any concern about them. The 2012 presidential election which should have been a slam dunk for any GOP candidate proves that. The tipping point has been reached and America is now on the steady path to socialism and or fascism. Conservatism's last gasp was the 2010 election. Liberal and progressive thought have won the heart and souls of a majority of Americans.
Keep giving everything free to the “un-informed’ voters, illegals and whomever and you will never again loose an election, that is until you run out of the working people’s money.
You know its coming..
The Founders, God bless ‘em, knew this would happen. They knew the nature of man, which is to crave power, use power and abuse power.
The only hope for America is to limit the power of government.
It’s NOT just ‘giving up first amendment’ rights - they’re targeting us. Just like the IRS.
The lie they use is it’s for ‘national security’ implying they’re trying to safeguard us from radical Muslims. But that’s a lie.
The guy who wrote this is a democrat - and that should have been identified.
[[The fact that this question is even asked shows how far we’ve fallen.]]
I was thinking hte very same thing- and then thought- the fact that rand paul has to brign a measure before the floor that tries to reinstate the 4’th amendment and protect it from future assaults tells me this coutnry is doomed-
[[So what are you and the rest of Congress going to do about thesevfelonies]]
Probably the same thing you and I are doing- nothign but ventign about it anonymously on an itnernety forum
[[It’s called the constitution.]]
It’s also called in inalienable right- a right that SUPERCEEDES the authority of any govenrment— But hte fact is that this gimme generation hsa their lips so firmly attached to the govenrment teet that we’ll never fight to keep our inalienable rights- I read a lot of forums, and kept seeign NY’ers boldly claim “Fro mmy cold dead hands’ when NY threatened to take hteir rights away concernign guns- yet when the law went through, they all pretty much meekly complied with hte law- Watched the same htign happen in connecticut, and colorado as well as other states- UI’ve NOT seen a news story yet where a police officer enforcign he unconstitutional law had to pry a gun from the gun owners cold dead hands after they rersisted havign hteir guns ILLEGALLY confiscated by their govenrment- Oerhaps we’ll see a case or two i nthe future, but these cases won’t amount to a pisshole i nthe snow because the media WILL succeed in portrayign these isolated incidents as the gun owner beign a ‘radical aNTI-gvoenrment right wing luinatic’ and WILL succeed in convincign hte public that if they try the same hting, they will get the same treatment- so everyoen but a few will shrink back in horror when the gestapo knock at hteir door
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