Free Republic

A coming crackdown on $1.6 billion in unreported tips will continue the IRS' long and ugly history of targeting low-income Americans. When President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act last year, the White House touted how the bill's $80 billion in new funding for the IRS would "make our tax code fairer by cracking down on millionaires, billionaires, and corporations that evade their obligations."It now appears that some of those resources—and some of the coming crackdown on tax evasion—will, quite predictably, be aimed at individuals earning considerably less.This week, the Treasury Department and IRS announced plans to overhaul existing...

Does the Environmental Protection Agency really need armed agents? Outside of law enforcement, federal agencies now employ over 25,000 people as armed agents. They are more than guards. They’ve become like private armies that can push around private citizens. Over 70 non-military federal agencies now have their own armed agents. You expect armed agents with the FBI, the U.S. Marshal Service and the Border Patrol. But the EPA? The Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, even the Social Security Administration and the National Institutes of Health? Even the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban...

To modify Lord Acton, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but aldermanic power corrupts all der more manically. Proco “Joe” Moreno is alderman of the First Ward of Chicago, and last week, in a city with an Aurora-sized body count every weekend, his priority was to take the municipal tire-iron to the owners of a chain of fast-food restaurants. “Because of this man’s ignorance,” said Alderman Moreno, “I will now be denying Chick-fil-A’s permit to open a restaurant in the First Ward.” “This man’s ignorance”? You mean, of the City of Chicago permit process? Zoning regulations? Health and safety ordinances?...

n preparation for Obama-EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) released a video montage of Obama EPA Regional Administrators longing to impose a green “Way Of Life Act” on Americans through the regulatory regime of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Regional Administrators talk of how they plan to “crucify” domestic energy producers, make their businesses “painful every step of the way,” or otherwise compel a green way-of-life. Recently, Sen. Inhofe uncovered a video of Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz admitting that EPA’s “general philosophy” is to “crucify” and...

Americans of modest means may soon get a lesson in the power of the IRS. ### Is there an IRS agent in your future? Shortly before Barack Obama signed the health-care bill, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee created a stir with a report suggesting our new law will lead the Internal Revenue Service to hire as many as 16,500 new agents. The Republicans came up with the figure by extrapolating from the IRS budget, the amount spent on employees, and the $10 billion in new funding that the Congressional Budget Office says the IRS will need to...

Texas police have been standing guard outside the home of the Texas judge who ordered the removal of all the FLDS children from the YFZ Ranch. The heightened security was ordered after authorities from Utah and Arizona warned them to be on the lookout for FLDS "enforcers," the Deseret News has learned. Every officer guarding Judge Barbara Walther's San Angelo house was provided dossiers and photos of 16 FLDS men and women whom Utah police deemed a threat. However, e-mails obtained by the Deseret News from the Washington County Sheriff's Office warned Texas authorities to be suspicious of everybody, not...

Whenever the subject of hockey comes up, I'm the pansy who prattles on about how much he likes the European game — the big rinks, the passing, the fast players, and — most importantly, a lack of fighting. The fighting in North American hockey is one of the main reasons I stopped paying any attention to the sport a decade ago. What kind of legitimate sport has "enforcers" — whose mission is to engage other "enforcers" in the sort of activity that would get regular people arrested if they did it outside of a bar? I guess the closest analogy...

Escort 'Enforcer' Allegedly Stabs Orange County Homeowner Victim Reportedly Fighting About Payment Before Attack POSTED: 5:06 a.m. EDT August 29, 2003 UPDATED: 9:59 a.m. EDT August 29, 2003 A man working for a Florida escort service allegedly stabbed an Orange County, Fla., homeowner during a fight over money, according to Local 6 News. Investigators said that Juan Lopez reportedly hired a woman from a Tampa, Fla. escort service to visit his home on Sugar Bush Court Thursday night. When the woman arrived at about 9:20 p.m., the two began arguing about payment, according to a report. Authorities believe the woman...