In light of the recent IRS
scandal, some politicians are calling for the agency to be scaled back.
They say the IRS has entirely too much power, and we’re now seeing the
chilling result of an organization that’s out of control.
And I say, “Yahoo!”
Not that I'm exactly hopeful that significant change will happen, but I’d be happy if it did.
As I've
mentioned before, I can’t stand doing taxes. I see no downside to
instituting a flat tax (a real one), consolidating the IRS, and eliminating
annual filings. Just take my money already and leave me alone.
That said, I think the
talk about how this scandal has caused some to lose confidence in the agency is
interesting. Were there people who actually has trust in the IRS? I surely
wasn’t one of those. The only trust I’d put in a large bureaucracy is in
its inability to organize itself well enough to do actual harm, and shucks, I
was wrong about that.
Now make no mistake,
what the IRS did is shocking. A lot of the media characterizes the abuse of
power as “targeting conservative groups,” but it was more than that. These
officials focused on groups seeking 501(c)(4) status, a designation for nonprofit
groups promoting social welfare causes. One would be hard pressed to NOT infer
that, by scrutinizing these applications and making it difficult for certain
organizations to function, the IRS was attempting to unduly influence the
political arena. Since the scandal broke, a
few agencies have gone on record as stating that their attempts to qualify for 501(c)(4) status became so
burdensome, they just stopped trying. Not good.
So, perhaps I’m being
shortsighted, but I could see benefit in a smaller IRS, and I’d enthusiastically
welcome a real public dialogue on the topic.
What about you? Do you
think the IRS should be downsized?
Yes and no. I do think we should, Roy works for the IRS, because a lot of the workers are worthless. They don't know their job. But I don't believe in a flat tax neither, I'm sure you believe in a flat tax either, I'm sure you remember 9-9-9. But Obama really needs to do something differently with the taxes. In particular with the the party, these, other organizations too, including Obama's. And of course close up all those loopholes. And get rid of a lot of these people who don't know anything, and I know from Roy, he has such a time, he trains a lot of people, and he's a person that you are supposed to ask if you have any questions, and no matter how much he trains, they still don't know the job. But you are right, I don't know if they will do anything. Its always talked about, they are going to change the tax code, they are going to do something differently, and they never do. But one can hope because of this scandal that they will. I hate paying taxes too, I hate buying something, and I think its that price, but its more money than it is. But we have to have them, how would they pay certain things? With the tea parties, they are very disingenuous, of course they are political organizations. And I don't say all of them, but they appear to be very racist. I don't know if you saw some of their posters, pictures of racist stuff with Obama. Also, where were they during the Bush administration? Especially with their tea bags hanging off their head, a waste of tea.
ReplyDeleteHi Londa! I think (I'm not entirely sure) that the Tea Party has already had its 15 minutes, so I'm not even going to bother with them, although I do appreciate the grassroots nature of the effort. Grassroots is where it's at, in my book. People have to start caring about stuff from the ground up and be motivated to change it. Easier said than done of course, but how else will things change for the better? I don't remember all the details of Cain's proposal, but regardless, I really could get behind a flat tax that EVERYONE paid without a bunch of loopholes. The problem is the special interest groups and their loopholes, as well as a ridiculously high tax percent. You make 100% and the government wants 35 or 40? Come on! It's offensive.
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