Join the Revolution: Abolish the IRS

President Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 promising to transform America. By almost all accounts he has succeeded.

Beginning in 2009 our Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), in an operation called Fast and Furious, facilitated the delivery of over 2,000 “assault” weapons to drug gangs in Mexico. The administration is still withholding documents to cover it up. The ATF, whose primary role is STOPPING such activity, will never be the same. Some transformation!

Nearly two years ago, when our consulate in Benghazi was under attack, brave special operations forces were armed and ready to fly to the aid of Americans. They were told to STAND DOWN! Today, with Russians annexing neighboring territory, China expanding its naval fleet and Israel facing a nuclear Iran, we are cutting our forces back to pre World War II levels. Our entire national security posture has been transformed.

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Sharyl Attkisson was an investigative reporter for CBS News. Her personal and work computers were both hacked. No financial or personal information was ever abused, but work product from her work computer was taken. Sophisticated measures were employed in an attempt to cover the tracks. This started when she was reporting on Fast and Furious. It continued while she was reporting on Benghazi. I wonder who might have the capability to do such a thing? I wonder why the intruder was more interested in her writings than her bank account?

Our Attorney General, the highest ranking legal officer in the land, lied to judges to get a warrant to tap the phones of reporters. It is not clear why. The relationship between the media and government has been transformed.

The FBI director admitted in a Senate hearing that they use drones to spy on American citizens.  Sparingly, of course. Perhaps.

Every phone conversation and email that you and I have been a part of for the last many years is on record with the National Security Agency (NSA). Do you wonder if someone might snoop into the content of those communications without a court approval? Does it concern you that every contact you have ever had could become public if you “step out of line?”

We are assured, of course, that such abuse will never happen. Never happen! Perhaps.

Activists protest the surveillance of U.S. citizens by the NSA outside the Justice Department where U.S. President Barack Obama gave a major speech on reforming the NSA January 17, 2014 in Washington, DC. Obama was expected to announce reforms including a requirement by intelligence agencies to obtain permission from a secret court before utilizing access to telephonic data gathered on U.S. citizens. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Then we see an interview with a retired top official with the NSA in which he tells us that they get their employees from the same pool of Americans that the IRS gets their employees. Which brings me, rather neatly I think, to the IRS. This government agency, that knows more about us than even our doctor, has been transformed too. It has been transformed into a tool of threat and intimidation.

Catherine Engelbrecht, a Houston businesswoman, decided that she and some friends needed to monitor elections in their area because of questionable activity in the past. She formed a group and applied for a tax status similar to that held by hundreds of other civic organizations. Other than paying taxes and voting, that application was her first interaction with the federal government.

The Domestic Terrorism unit of the FBI showed up first. She was then investigated by the ATF (Yes – the same agency that ran the Fast and Furious operation). Then came the Texas Council on Environmental Quality, which is associated with the EPA. OSHA inspected her plant. She was audited by the IRS. Twice!

She was sued by the Texas Democrat Party and a Texas affiliate of ACORN, a left-wing community-organizing group.

(AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)

It may be that it was just a coincidence that five agencies of the federal government showed up to investigate her following her application to the IRS. Perhaps the fines levied against her by OSHA and the increased taxes demanded by the IRS were coincidences too. Perhaps.

If she were a lone example it would not create huge suspicion. She wasn’t.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a leading opponent of same-sex marriage. They filed their contributor list as required by law. The IRS illegally gave confidential contributor information to The Human Rights Campaign, an organization supporting same-sex marriage. The media happily reported that Mitt Romney was a contributor. Fundraising efforts on behalf of NOM were chilled.  The gay community doubled its effort to defeat Romney. Coincidence? Perhaps.

A pro-life organization in Iowa filed for tax-exempt status. After a couple of years of delays and over 100 pages of questions, including what prayers they prayed, they were told that their application would be approved if the officers of the organization would sign a document – under penalty of perjury – that they would never protest or picket against Planned Parenthood, whose policies, of course, were the exact policies they opposed. It is worth noting that Planned Parenthood is a tax-exempt organization.

Frank Vandersloot, an Idaho rancher and businessman, took an active role in the Romney campaign. He was a major contributor. The IRS and the Labor Department audited him and his businesses. He was cleared of any wrongdoing, but spent $80,000 on legal and accounting fees.

All of this, we were told, was the result of overzealous inspections by a few “rogue agents” in an IRS office in Cincinnati. That’s right. A few rogue agents in Cincinnati directed the activities of the IRS, the FBI, the EPA, the ATF, OSHA, the Labor Department, the Texas Democrat Party and ACORN. Or perhaps this was all just coincidence. Perhaps.

(AP Photo/J. David Ake)

And just to make sure that we know who is boss, 200 Bureau of Land Management “rogue agents” showed up in Nevada recently, with machine guns  and attack dogs, to collect on a rancher’s grazing bill.

Our country has been transformed. What was once a  “Shining City on a Hill” has become something entirely different. Our government has become ruthless, vindictive and mean.

And we, as a citizenry, have become something different too. We are more careful of what we say and do. We wonder if we are being watched. We have become timid and afraid.

Every “ism” that has ever sought to rule its people began by making them timid and afraid. From Progressivism through Communism, Nazism and Fascism – first they created timidity and fear.

The question you and I must answer is this: “Are we going to spend the rest of our lives timid and afraid?”

Or will we say: Not me! Not here! Not now! Not ever!

Declaration of Independence.

To me, the most offensive of all of these affronts to a free society is the abusive behavior of the IRS. Every one of us has either been through an audit (four for me) or has a friend who has been audited. I just assumed that the agents had been trained to be rude and offensive.

We know nothing about them. They know everything about us. They know how much money we make. How we make it. How much we give to our church. What charities we do or do not support. How we invest. Whether we win or lose. And now they have our personal medical records.

Under Obamacare, your Protected Health Information will be shared between the IRS, HHS, DHS, DOJ, VA, Medicare, TRICARE, State and Federal health programs and health insurers. It will be unlawful, of course, for any of the millions of people working for these groups to disclose any of it. Perhaps none of them will ever break that law. Perhaps.

This is no way to live! It is time for you and I, and our friends, to join together and shut the IRS down. There should never be an agency of the federal government that knows more about us than we are willing to tell our children.

Before you say, “It’ll never happen,” let me be very clear. It not only can happen. It must happen. It will happen.

Just 100 years ago our nation prospered with no IRS. Our founding fathers would never have even contemplated an agency this intrusive…this coercive…this corrosive. Indeed, our founding fathers fought to free us from just this kind of abuse.

Photo source: Americans for Prosperity

They made their case against their ruler in the Declaration of Independence. “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

That is exactly what the Revolutionary War was fought over!That is a battle we must have again.

It is said that there was never a majority in favor of independence from England. Those who were willing to commit their “lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor” for freedom were persistent, thoughtful and bold. And few. They created a nation that became a beacon for the world.

It can be again – if a few of us are willing to be persistent, thoughtful and bold. If we fail to act we will leave a bleak future for our children’s world.

Are we willing to leave them a world in which they timidly keep to themselves and avoid the Internet out of fear that someone is watching? Must they avoid their cell phone out of fear that someone is listening? Will they avoid financial risks out of fear that our government may question their decisions? Will they be able to worship in our churches without looking over their shoulders?

That is not the kind of world I inherited nor the kind of world I want to leave behind.

If you are content to live in a very small world and not be bold, this would be a good time for you to stop reading this article. If you are not content with those limits on your life and the lives of your children and grandchildren – get involved!

We CAN change this government. We CAN get rid of the IRS. Without the IRS, and the warehouse full of personal information they have on every one of us, we cannot be ruled. And we must not be ruled!

To think that the IRS will change its ways is just silly. They are an agency out of control. They answer to no one. When asked by Congress about these abuses they lied under oath. Even today, after multiple hearings on several committees in both houses of Congress, not only is the punitive treatment of conservative groups still going on, but they are giving IRS employees bonuses – including to employees who are delinquent on their own taxes!

Getty Images

They must be stopped. They will only be stopped when the bold step forth to stop them.

America does, of course, need revenue to fund the legitimate functions of our government. How to do that is a debate for another time. There are several serious tax reform proposals on the table. My favorite is the FairTax. I think it will win the debate.

But first you must force that debate. And the way to force that debate is to abolish the IRS.

This isn’t complicated. This is not a public issue that can be taken out of context. It comes down to one question for every candidate for office. “Will you vote to abolish the IRS or not?”

It also comes down to one question for YOU.  “Will YOU help to abolish the IRS or not?”

There are many organizations committed to this proposal; Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Express, FairTax.org, repeal16.com and many others. Help them! There is a growing sentiment in Congress to get rid of the IRS. Help them! Tell those seeking your vote that you only support candidates who will vote to repeal the 16^th Amendment.

Call Glenn Beck. Call Mark Levin. Call Sean Hannity. Call Rush. Urge them to lead the charge to repeal the 16th  Amendment and get rid of the IRS. They have the reach and the gravitas to move this nation. Help them! Share this with your friends. Urge them to get involved.

We can be timid and fearful of the future, or we can be bold and shape the future. Those who gave us this free nation were bold. So must we be.

Robert Moffat, a 19th Century Christian missionary wrote, “We have all eternity in which to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset in which to win them.”

I do not presume to tell you that governance carries as profound an implication as salvation, but there is an analogy to be drawn. And it is apt. The sun is setting on history’s greatest experiment in freedom. Those we have placed in a position to govern have decided to rule. We still have time to correct them…if we are bold.

Join the revolution! Abolish the IRS!

–

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.