Red storm rising: Right-wing stoking fears of gun-toting IRS agents
March 23, 2010 4:09 pm ET by Brian Frederick
As conservatives begin to come to grips with the passage of the health care law (and their failure to defeat it), they are -- predictably -- reacting poorly. Following weeks and months of failed rhetoric portraying passage of the law as "the end of America as you know it," some conservatives are still in denial, while others are stoking fears about what's coming.
What's coming? IRS "thugs coming with their guns" to force you into socialized medicine.
If it's not clear by now, it should be: Right-wing reaction to health care reform has the potential to become violent.
Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney took to Fox News this morning and claimed that the IRS is going to "hire 17,000 new agents and spend $10 billion so that they will check that you have the insurance that you're supposed to have." Varney's number of agents is based (shock) on a Republican estimate of the bill and the CBO actually projected that the costs to the IRS would be between $5 billion and $10 billion over the next 10 years.
Last night on Fox Business Network, America's Nightly Scoreboard host David Asman opened his show with an epic rant, repeatedly trashing the IRS and claiming that Americans "lost their freedom to choose their own health care options." Of the IRS, Asman stated:
[T]he IRS already has a history of forcing people to do what they don't want to do. But what's really scary about all this is that the IRS has a reputation of turning American justice on its head. In the world of IRS enforcement, you're often guilty until proven innocent. There have been many businesses that have had to fold up shop because of an IRS investigation, even if the owners of those businesses were later found to be innocent. And now IRS agents will have access to more of your personal files than ever. Does that make you feel good? Could that make any American feel good?
Asman wasn't done:
Frankly, it scares the hell out of Scoreboard. We don't trust the government with that kind of power and influence in our personal life. And we don't think that makes us anti-American, either. In fact, Scoreboard thinks that skepticism about growing government control is pro-American since America was founded on the principles of individual choice and distrust of government mandates that remove individual choice. This legislation is turning that philosophy upside down and putting IRS goons potentially in charge of matters that involve the most personal choices we make regarding life and death and this adds insult to injury.
Asman then immediately turned to a "man who spent his life fighting for the freedom to choose life," Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX):
ASMAN: Now the private option ... it's going to be illegal and not only will it be illegal because everybody will be forced to buy insurance, but you're going to have an IRS agent on your tail if you dare not to have insurance.What do you think of that?
[...]
PAUL: I think symbolically, the American people didn't have concern, they ought to just think about it: 16,500 armed bureaucrats coming to make this program work.
ASMAN: It's incredible.
PAUL: If it was a good program and everybody liked it you wouldn't need 16,500 thugs coming with their guns and putting you in jail if you didn't follow all the rules.
ASMAN: Exactly. I think you just said it. If it was a good program, you wouldn't need coercion. This is coercion. Using the power of the state as a coercive body rather than a representative of the American people's will. There's something deepy, deeply wrong with that.
Asman's portrayal of the legislative process as "coercion" rather than "representative of the American people's will," is of course absurd, if not childish.
But here's the deal:
Asman may not find "skepticism about growing government control" to be "anti-American" -- and he may indeed even see it as "pro-American" -- but referring to federal workers as "goons" and "thugs" is shameful.
And stoking fears that they are "coming with their guns and putting you in jail" if you don't comply is not only disingenuous, it's dangerous.
- you have the right to have your condition stabilized.
- you will then have to go to another institution to obtain further care.
There is no law requiring hospitals to do anything beyond "stabilizing".
People without insurance do not "get a free ride". They get inferior care and will regularly under-use healthcare (as in not getting check-ups or other preventative care). They are only a "burden" to us all because ER charges are extraorindarily high and because they end up there because they lack regular care. Also, insurance companies, as a group, enjoy some of the highest profit margins of all major businesses.
Heil Beck!
They need to keep the loyal (so-called) conservative mass media consumer fearful and conditioned to reflexively hate anything President Obama or the Democratic majority pass.
It is crucial that the rank and file (so called) conservative media consumer never takes a moment to actually examine the legislation on it's merits.
Remember, these right wing media consumers are being fed a 24/7 constant stream of misinformation and fear from sources that they consider trustworthy. So it's really difficult to convince them to even take an honest look at something that they have been repeatedly told is going to destroy their country.
- Should we ridicule it?
- SHould we refute it with facts and data?
- Should we reduce it to absurdity?
- Should we resort to a ad hominem?
- Should we build up the straw man?
- Should we expose the feet of clay?
"Prior to 11:52 AM EDT 3/23/2010 nobody in America ever cheated on their taxes."
Those of you under 19 may not comprehend the absurdity of that statement, so kindly allow the grownups our ROFLMAO.
In 2009 1,115 people were prosecuted for tax fraud, and just over 800 went to prison. Half as many people were injured by lightning, 540.
We grownups know that many more people seek to evade taxes than run around in thunderstorms brandishing long metal poles while standing on the tops of hills, we can surmise your odds of going to prison for tax evasion for not paying are slim to none.
But seriously, these irresponsible cynics are inciting unstable individuals to increasingly outrageous and violent acts. Whilst there may be some sort of "free speech" defence at law (not withstanding Holmes comments about yelling "fire!" in a crowded theatre in Schenk v United States), but surely no responsible broadcaster could allow such incitement to public violence? What about FCC Regulations? Dropping the "magic word" or exposing the female breast brings about a flurry of activity and calls for heads to roll.
What happens to those who foment hatred and incite violence as part of their political agenda?
What happened to all those anti-terrorism laws? Strewth, you won't have to waterboard them, just quote their own published words back at them.
Change "businesses" to "organizations," and change IRS to "conspiracy-crazed neocons," and you have the ACORN saga. I wonder if Asman would agree that what happened to them is bad.
I also have to wonder why the right-wing has suddenly discovered how great Ron Paul is. And, lest anyone claim that we have changed our minds about him, that's not true--we always thought he was at least a little deranged.
I'm sure the owner of the carwash in Sacramento who was confronted by two IRS agents for the grand sum of....4 cents and was treated, in the owner's words, condescendingly, is surely not a sign of things to come
It is a fact that both the IRS and the Department of Education have both posted RFQ's (Request for Quotation) for semi-automtic weapons. Why? Coincidentally, the new health care act deals with the IRS and DOE.
Since the United States census constitutionally is for enumeration, ONLY, what does...
a. Your name and names of all members of household
b. Home address
c. Race
d. Nationality
e. Income
f. Age and dates of birth of all members of household
have to do with the simple task of enumeration, counting heads?
But, most importantly, why is the IRS in charge of this health care monstrosity?
In all states, the IRS may file with the county clerk, a tax lien against you personally, and your real property (house, commercial property, etc.)
By the way, unlike you or I, when trying to collect an alleged debt, they do not have to sue, go to court, prove to a judge or jury they are right with evidence and facts, win the suit, get a judgement signed by a judge, then abstract the judgement into a lien. They simply skip the judicial process, due process as it is constitutionally known, and go straight to lien.
So, they dont like what your insurance covers or doesn't cover, you choose not to buy federally mandated insurance? You could end up with a lien against you and your property? Dont own real property? The lien is good for ten years, at which point the lien is renewable for another ten years.
Don't pay the lien? They garnish your wages and seize your property.
Here in Texas, you cannot lose your homesteaded property for a debt. Yes you can lose it due to owing property taxes on the property itself. And we don't have garnishee for wages. But, the IRS can and does garnishee wages, again simply by writing an unsigned, yes, unsigned letter.
And they can seize any real property, bank accounts, etc. by writing again an unsigned letter. No due process.
Finally, Natonal Insecurity quotes very low numbers for prosection, however, the United States does not have debtors prison, except if you owe income tax.