Republicans Using IRS Scandal To Try To End Taxes

Posted by | May 20, 2013 18:16 | Filed under: Top Stories

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by Stuart Shapiro

Republicans are taking to heart Rahm Emanuel’s dictum that you “never let a serious crisis go to waste.”  The IRS scandal has given them an opportunity to once again propose their favorite type of legislation.

House Republicans last week proposed legislation that would suspend the ability of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to conduct audits until the IRS itself is audited by Congress.

The bill, from Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), is the latest in a string of measures that have been offered in the wake of the IRS’s adminssion it applied extra scrutiny to conservative groups over the last few years. . .

Fleming’s Audit the IRS Act would prevent these sorts of inquiries for 180 days, which would give Congress time to examine “how audits were misused and who is responsible for any criminal actions.”

Yeah, that makes sense.  Next time the TSA wands someone inappropriately, let’s suspend homeland security for 18 months.  The next time a policeman pulls someone over because of racial profiling, let’s stop enforcing speed limits.

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Copyright 2013 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.