Posted on 03/31/2015 5:52:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
The IRS commissioner on Tuesday brushed aside GOP proposals to abolish his agency, insisting the U.S. would have to have a tax collector one way or another.
“You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel better,” the agency’s chief, John Koskinen, said after a speech at the National Press Club.
Republicans have heaped even more criticism upon the agency than usual over the last 22 months because of its improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) perhaps has made the most prominent calls to get rid of the IRS. While launching his presidential bid earlier in March, he floated the idea of “a simple flat tax that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.”
“Imagine abolishing the IRS,” he added.
Koskinen said Tuesday that, even under the simplest of tax codes, the federal government would need an agency to collect revenue and administer the tax code, something Cruz’s own aides have also admitted.
“Somebody has to collect the money, and then somebody also has to make sure when you fill in the small card, you’re putting in the right numbers,” Koskinen said.
But Koskinen also said he understands why politicians seek to tap into public anger at the IRS. Conservatives have become increasingly angry at the IRS because of the Tea Party controversy, but Koskinen insisted that an overly complicated tax code spurred much of the anger at his agency.
“I think that’s a lot of what’s behind, you know, ‘get rid of the IRS.’ It’s really ‘get rid of this complicated tax code.’ And to that extent, I think that’s a reasonable goal,” Koskinen said.
Koskinen made his comments after a speech in which he said that the agency was doing its best to put the controversies of the last few years behind it. In addition to the Tea Party investigations, Congress has also rapped the IRS for excessive spending on conferences.
Congressional investigators have accused the central figure in the Tea Party controversy — Lois Lerner, who formerly led the IRS division overseeing tax-exempt groups — of using her personal email account to conduct agency business.
Scrutiny of that practice has only grown in recent weeks, after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged not having an official government account while heading the department. Clinton is expected to announce her own presidential bid in the coming weeks.
Koskinen said Tuesday that the IRS has clear rules barring staffers from using personal accounts for their public work and that he strictly follows that policy. But the IRS chief also acknowledged that “we have 87,000 people. Does that mean no one is doing it? I can’t guarantee you that. But I can guarantee we’re keeping a close watch on it.”
To illustrate how seriously the IRS takes that policy, Koskinen noted that he had sent draft congressional testimony to his home computer for editing early in his tenure.
“Within a couple days, I had a visitor from IT security,” the commissioner said, adding technology staffers quickly got him “a computer and a printer for home from the IRS.”
“I have never, other than sending a couple of pieces of draft testimony to my email account, certainly never discussed IRS business on my own personal account,” he added.
When this worthless agency chief tells the media today that 60% of the calls to the IRS won’t be answered this year, he is obviously lying about how necessary it is. They are not doing their job, but are busy harassing TEA Party people across the fruited plain. Shut it down. The American people can pay their flat tax online as they do their credit card bills. If the government is too inept, let Visa and Mastercard collect the taxes. Firing thousands of IRS flunkies will save billions.
We could abolish them. As they are now.
We could also fire them and not rehire them in whatever much, much smaller revenue office is created to manage flat tax filers.
We could make it so they never worked as a bureaucrat ever again.
We could make it so we could fire any of them that abused their power, used their power to help politicians, and subvert investigations into their office’s wrongdoings.
I think we could accomplish a lot more in changing his attitude and it wouldn't take us all that long :)
They could fire every single one of them, just like the aircraft controllers with a stroke of the pen.
I read the 16th amendment a few weeks ago. It does not really have to be repealed to get rid of the IRS. All it says is that Congress has the power to tax income. It does not say how or establish the IRS.
Challenge Accepted.
Ok. I’ll play. So we don’t abolish the IRS. I would settle for “gutting” the IRS.
Looking forward to the day that IRS agents are given a choice- Stand a post on the southern border or find another job.
Bureaucratic Arrogance
After years of imperial decrees, these bastards think they are untouchable.
The Judiciary too. (See this.)
not if you have a sales tax. there is no personal scrutiny with a sales tax. they can only scour the detail transactions of each business. can they do it? yes. not if you don’t fund it.
Flawed is too nice a word. Unconstitutional. ILLEGAL.
Even IF the 16th was passed properly, it still does not negate the 4th, 5th and 13th Amendments...regardless of some ruling by the black-robed oligarchs whom are payed by the same economic serfs (boy, que surprise, eh?!).
sorry but i think the gold crap from the current designer in chief would be the first to go.
Even better, get rid of all the stupid damn programs...like Headstart, Common Core, Federal Lunch Programs etc etc
Individual states.... you know that’s not a bad idea. A tax plan that taxes states based on the population. A certain number of dollars for each adult to be collected by the federal government from the states. Let each state figure out how to raise the funds on its own.... :)
These bureaucrats have nothing on Al Capone or the MAFIA. If Al Capone or the Mafia had the power that these IRS bureaucrats, we’d have John Gotti as our president by now. They have become the enemies of the people they have sworn to serve.
“You can’t end me.” Famous last words of many a tyrant and arrogant bureaucrat.
Obviously taxes will always be collected, and there will be a mechanism for collecting them.
The point about abolishing the IRS is that the set of bureaucrats, small-minded bullies, political hacks, and the rest who currently *staff* it will be out on their ears. THAT’S what’s actually at stake.
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