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In another publication the headlines read, "CONGRESS INCREASES IRS
BUDGET."
Washington, DC. The IRS is a "troubled agency" that is
"terrorizing innocent Americans and wrecking our lives," Congress
says, so why did it just vote to increase the agency's budget by $600 million?
Politicians just voted to give the Internal Revenue Service $600 million
more so IRS agents can file more erroneous tax assessments, target more
defenseless mom and pop businesses for harassment, use more fake names to cover
their crimes and drive more taxpayers to suicide.
| Those are the kinds of tragic and outrageous stories that the Senate Finance
Committee is hearing from taxpayers, stories that are being corroborated by IRS
agents wearing hoods to protect their identities. |
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This week, America is hearing in graphic detail the crimes committed by the
IRS. They are also seeing Republican and Democratic politicians pretend to be
outraged about how the IRS breaks the law, tramples our rights, and rifles
through our pockets. But just one week before they held this public hearing,
these politicians voted to increase the budget of the agency they are now
criticizing. If Congress wants to rein in the IRS why did congress give it more
money to terrorize more Americans and wreck more lives?
And while the hearings go on, the IRS continues to grow. It already has
120,000 employees who are busy investigating, prying, fining, filing criminal
charges and seizing property. Last year alone, the IRS filed 750,000 liens
against taxpayers, imposed 3,200,000 (3.2 million) fines and seized 10,000
pieces of property. And the IRS is also busy keeping lists of Americans who
exercise their first Amendment rights by criticizing the agency according to
new testimony.
| IRS historian Shelley Davis testified that the IRS illegally maintains files
of so-called "tax protesters" people whose only "crime"
might have been to write a letter to a newspaper criticizing the IRS or the
income tax. For IRS agents, "criticism of the IRS or the income tax equals
tax protester," she testified to the Senate Finance Committee. |
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Ironically, if that accusation is true, the IRS now considers several U.S.
Senators criminals. For example, the chairman of the Senate finance Committee,
Republican Senator William Roth said the IRS engages in "abusive and
illegal acts" and Republican Senator Don Nickles said the IRS has an
"unbelievable power to wreck lives."
Yet despite all the harsh criticism, the hearings will end without any
significant reforms to the IRS. Once the cameras are turned off, not one
dollar will be cut from the IRS budget, not one IRS supervisor will be fired,
and not one IRS lawbreaker will be sent to jail.
Politicians say they want to protect us from the government agencies they've
created but don't believe them. When these IRS bullies are finished testifying
about their criminal acts, they will take off their hoods and go back to work
terrorizing American taxpayers. It will take more than one grandstanding
Congressional hearing to make politicians realize that the only way to protect
us from the IRS is to abolish the agency.
These articles about the IRS are not only carried in national magazines.
They’re in your local newspapers. The Toledo Blade has printed many
articles about the IRS. For example, in their June 6th, 1996 edition there was
an article carrying the Headlines, "IRS FAILS AN AUDIT OF ITS OWN
FINANCES."
WASHINGTON (AP) A congressional audit of the Internal Revenue Service
asserted yesterday that the agency that scrutinizes taxpayers' finances cannot
properly keep track of the $1.4 trillion it collects each year. "The
agency that is so strict on the way Americans keep their books cannot itself
pass a financial audit," complained Senator Ted Stevens (R. Alaska)
chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee.
Mr. Stevens, reviewing the fiscal 1995 audit by the General Accounting
Office, raised the possibility of Congress appointing an outside control board
to run the IRS, like the board overseeing the District of Columbia government.
In the House, Rep. Jim Lightfoot (R. Ia.) chairman of the appropriations
subcommittee controlling the IRS budget said an outside board would " be
something worth considering." Management has been a problem there, he
said. The GAO audit said "fundamental persistent problems remain
uncorrected" for the fourth year in a row. It said the IRS:
* Cannot reconcile the accounting records it keeps on individual taxpayers
with the $1.4 trillion in revenue it collected or the $122 billion in refunds
it paid.
* Cannot substantiate the amounts it reported collecting for various types
of taxes-income, Social Security, and excise.
* Cannot verify a significant portion of its $3 billion in non payroll
spending.
* And cannot determine the reliability of its $113 billion estimate of
overdue taxes owed.
On September 17th, 1997 the articles headlines were "GOP TARGETS IRS
FOR REFORM, Surveys, letters cite ‘abuses’."
WASHINGTON (AP) Seizing on allegations that the IRS has abused taxpayers and
wasted $4 billion on a computer project, Republicans are sending out anti-IRS
surveys and fund raising letters.
"With your immediate help today, we can virtually abolish the IRS as
you know it", the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial
Committee, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said in a letter to thousands of GOP
faithful-- current and potential donors--as investigative hearings begin in the
House and Senate. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and House
Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas have sent out similar fund-raising pleas.
In addition, the Senate finance Committee will hold hearings later this
month on its investigation of IRS collection abuses while the Joint Committee
of Taxation is examining alleged IRS harassment of conservative nonprofit
groups. "Our six month long look at the IRS shows a troubled agency with
widespread, serious problems." Senate finance Chairman William Roth, Jr.
(R, Del.) said.
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