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The real threat: the IRS
Harry BinswangerThe IRS is an agency with its hands wrapped around our necks, ready to strangle. The IRS will probably be the arm of the government used someday to install dictatorship. What we've already learned about the agency under Obama is shocking and frightening, and now comes a new, thinly veiled, obstruction of Justice to protect that stand-in for Cuffy Meigs: Lois Lerner. The IRS has destroyed 2 years of emails from her, emails concerning IRS attacks targeting right-wing groups. A Saturday Wall St. Journal editorial Saturday says:
| | The IRS . . . announced Friday that it can't find two years of emails from Lois Lerner to the Departments of Justice or Treasury. And none to the White House or Democrats on Capitol Hill. An Agency spokesman blames a computer crash.
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Blaming it on a computer crash is transparently a lie. The IRS must have multiple backups—they can't all be “lost.” Also, an email involves at minimum two parties, sender and receiver, so the Congressional committee seeking the emails need only subpoena them from Justice, the Treasury, and Democratic Congressmen.
But here's a more intriguing suggestion: get the missing emails from the NSA.
Supposedly, the NSA has access to every email sent over this period and further back. Okay, now is the time to use that power—in the name of defending our citizens—not against a foreign power but against a rogue branch within our own government.
The larger goal should be to abolish the IRS. We now see that it's just too dangerous to give government the power to tax income. A better substitute would be a sales tax, or some other method of tax collection that doesn't give the government the power to audit individuals or as much power to block its political opponents.
Of course, no means of forcing people to pay for government can be made safe from abuse. Whatever method of tax collection is used, the government has to be able to detect fraud and ensure that its rules are being followed. But taxing income has to be the worst, most abuse-prone method of taxation.
I'm sending the following letter to the editor to the Wall St. Journal:
| | The IRS claims that some unspecified “computer crash” makes them unable to find two years of emails between Lois Lerner and the White House, Congressmen, and other likely culprits conspiring to silence right-wing organizations. Very well, let the House Oversight Committee get these emails from the NSA.
Supposedly, the NSA has everyone's emails going back years, including the emails of government officials. If so, here is the perfect opportunity to use that power in the name of protecting our citizens—not against a foreign power but against a rogue agency within our own government.
Harry Binswanger
New York City
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