Give the IRS More Power? That’s An Idea Not Even Harry Reid Could Love. Maybe.

Geez, how could this possibly go wrong?

A new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee minority staff estimates up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses in the ‘reconciliation’ bill being taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives this weekend. …

Scores of new federal mandates and fifteen different tax increases totaling $400 billion are imposed under the Democratic House bill. In addition to more complicated tax returns, families and small businesses will be forced to reveal further tax information to the IRS, provide proof of ‘government approved’ health care and submit detailed sales information to comply with new excise taxes. [Emphasis mine.]

Those of you who know anything about the IRS know that it operates under the “guilty until you prove yourself innocent” principle. It doesn’t need anything like probable cause to peel your life like an onion. Once the IRS sinks its teeth into you, and it can do so on the flimsiest pretense, your life is essentially over.

A quick Google search will net you dozens, even hundreds of stories about people who did nothing at all wrong, but who had to spend years and most of their earnings, on breaking the jaws of a rabid IRS. Congress has heard tales of abuse of power for well over a decade.

Here’s the real kicker, though. The IRS has been so bad for so long that Harry Reid called the agency “damaged beyond repair”. He went on to say,

“It is a flawed system which is broken, and I believe we need to start seriously exploring a new way to collect taxes,” Reid said. “We have a system which rewards the lazy and hurts those who work. Our tax code is so complex that we have built up an entire cottage industry of financial planners to decipher it for us each year.”

“Let’s not be afraid to consider scrapping what we have in favor of something which will work for all of us,” he said.

Reid described the IRS as a “huge, powerful bureaucracy with enormous control over American lives.”

Gosh, I wonder what he’d think about giving that same “huge, powerful bureaucracy” an unprecedented level of power? If Leader Pelosi tears a big enough hole in the Constitution to do what she wants, we’ll find out, won’t we?

Other Posts of Interest:

• So, When Did Harry Reid Stop Beating His Wife?
• Harry Reid, Hiding Behind His Telephone
• Here’s An Idea: Make Everyone Partake in Our People’s Glorious Health Care System

Tags: Nanny Fascism, National Health Care, Taxes

Category: Health Care Craziness, The Rise of the Nanny State