In light of the newest round of IRS hearings on Capital Hill, I asked myself a basic question: “Why are we even having these hearings”? And I answered myself almost immediately: “to look into why the IRS abused its power”.
….and then it hit me that we already know why the IRS abused its power: because it could.
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This is the old “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” theory, but with one caveat: a Government Agency is not an individual. Therefore, it has no conscience, and thus can’t HAVE a sense of responsibility. No, the IRS is only as good as the shackles we use to chain it down, in order for it to do our bidding.
But based on both recent events and its own history, the IRS has proven to be incapable of remaining shackled. The tax collection agency has become King Kong, after he breaks out of the theater and starts terrorizing Manhattan. Both Kong and the IRS are gigantic, all-powerful entities, which wreck the lives of countless people with the flick of a wrist, while simultaneously terrifying millions more.
And just as Kong ultimately had to be brought down, so too should the IRS be toppled, …just without the bullets and biplanes, obviously.
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Reason.com had a post a couple months ago, in which the author wrote the following:
“Keep in mind that the IRS isn’t dangerous and politicized because it’s wielded by the Obama administration. The tax agency has been abused and used against political enemies by presidents of both parties.
The IRS is dangerous because of its vast, almost unaccountable powers, and the temptations those pose for politicians.”
That’s the long and short of it, I’m afraid.
The IRS simply can’t be trusted with the ridiculous omnipotence which it currently possesses, and it certainly doesn’t deserve more. If we’re to have any hope of bringing it back in line (assuming we don’t end it altogether), the first step is to carve it down to a far more manageable scale.
What about, say, just a Curious George-sized agency?
Two Heads are Better Than One 
Our tax codes are a travesty and should be abolished. We need a simple tax system and then there would be no need for the big boondoggle called the IRS!
Nobody in the world understands our current tax system!
I agree, Gene. My accountant is a friend of mine, and I’d hate to see him not have a profession anymore, BUT: the country was not created to be just a huge wheel with us strapped to it like oxen, in order to support the accountants.
I’d be cool with the Fair Tax, OR the Flat Tax. They both have their pluses/minuses, but it would be a wonderful debate to have: WHICH one do we go to, or do we come up with choice number three?
Anything but the monstrosity we are enduring now.
Plus, having the IRS play enforcer for Obamacare is basically like handing King Kong (from my analogy above) a nuclear warhead.
Thanks for nuthin’, Lefties…
I think a flat tax is the way to go. After all, isn’t the tithe you give to your church a sort of flat tax? Everyone is supposed to give ten percent. If it’s good enough for God, it should be good enough for the government.
You make 10,000 bucks a year, your tax is 1,000 bucks…you make a million bucks a year, your tax is 100,000 bucks. Easy as pie and no deductions. Postcard size tax form stapled to your check.
I’d have no issue w/ that, MrG, but I have a feeling that the Gov’t wouldn’t be satisfied with 10% for long. We’d have to put a law in place that would require it to stay at whatever level we set it for some period of time, …like 1000 years.
But it still sounds better than the current way.
Excellent essay! When you mentioned The IRS as King Kong, I had an image of Catherine Engelbrecht from True the Vote as King Kong’s Faye Wray (which then led me to humming the lyrics to the Rocky Horror song…but that’s another story)….
That’s pretty funny, Sally: hadn’t thought of “Rocky Horror…” in awhile.
😉
The gov’t needs money; I get that. But there’s a BUNCH of ways to get this done: keeping the current pathetic, abusive system shouldn’t be our only option.
Shouldn’t the current IRS logo have the scales tilted to favor the left side?
IRS to alter logo in 3…. 2…. 1….
I think that when the IRS wants an audit, or won’t allow a group to organize as a 501c3, that person’s senators must take turns signing the letter.
Absolute power surely DOES corrupt…absolutely. The modern IRS more resembles the “no-neck” brothers from some Mafioso clan, who come to collect “the big”. There’s VERY little negotiation, and the consequences for not “paying up” are severe.
I’ve always felt that the complexity of the tax code was purposeful to support the need to continually grow the size of the organization. And, while I get what you’re saying about our accountant friend, the bottom line is that a flat tax alternative is the direction we need to go.
Once upon a time there were folks who made buggy whips and mostly went out of business with the advent of the automotive age…..Progress happens, and we shouldn’t NOT move forward with what is right.
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