End the IRS!

Growing movement demands abolition of scandal-plagued revenue agency

Even before the scandal broke, Americans already hated and feared the IRS. So how much worse could the agency's reputation get?

Much worse. In May, it was revealed that the nation's most disliked government agency has been secretly and illegally denying the civil rights of hundreds of conservative and Christian organizations and individuals. Although both the IRS and the White House tried to blame the whole ghastly mess on the poor judgment of a couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati, the truth gradually emerged: The abuse was widespread and officials at the highest levels of government had long been aware – yet had done nothing to stop it. Indeed, IRS employees have testified there is no way such pervasive and egregious abuses could have occurred without direction from above.

The use of the IRS to persecute and suppress a de facto "White House enemies list" – in a manner and scope more serious than anything Richard Nixon even contemplated during the Watergate era – has led many to demand the agency be abolished.

U.S. senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and others are suggesting the replacement of both the IRS and the current income tax system with a "flat tax" or "fair tax" (national sales tax) saying such a move would do more for restoring personal liberty, economic vigor and genuine hope to America than almost any other single policy change.

And Congress could do it tomorrow.

"The average working American – poor or rich or in-between – hates and fears the IRS for good reason," observes author and commentator Michael Reagan, oldest son of President Ronald Reagan. "Able to seize your bank account or house without a court order, able to shut down your business overnight, the IRS is the closest thing to the Gestapo America has ever had." Even worse, says Reagan, "is the horrible income tax system the IRS is hired to enforce."

But there's an even more important reason to abolish the IRS: "The main reason the IRS exists today is not taxation. After all, income tax revenue could readily be replaced in a revenue-neutral way by means of, let's say, a national sales tax, which wouldn't require a Gestapo-like agency to enforce it, or government tentacles reaching into citizens' most private and personal affairs. Rather, the chief reason the IRS exists is to condition American citizens to be fearful of, and subservient to, their government.

Fear of government has always been a sign of tyranny. Totalitarian regimes from North Korea to Iran and every wretched police state in between, operate entirely on this principle of fear. So why should we, supposedly a free people, intentionally infect our entire population with the virus of fear of government? Is this something our Founding Fathers would have condoned?

"It's time to abolish the IRS," answers Cruz, who vows to lead the charge in the Senate. "We need to get rid of the army of IRS agents trying to police every aspect of our lives. No more discrimination, no more intimidation, and no IRS enforcement of Obamacare."