Out of the list of grievances against King George III in the American Declaration of Independence, this one cries out loudly to me:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

The ancient struggle between makers and takers.

King George’s swarms of tax-extracting Officers burdened hard-working American farmers, shopkeepers, and manufacturers with their demands for more tax money. A protection racket. Whenever some hard-working entrepreneurs saved a bit of money (their substance), these swarms of tax officers would eat out their substance (savings) like a swarm of locusts. These officers, who produced nothing themselves, seized the fruits of the labor of hard-working people who did produce.  

By July 4, 1776, these hard-working producers had had enough. They declared their independence from King George III and his swarms of locusts. 

Here we are having just celebrated July 4, 2021; Republican RINOS and Socialist Democrats are poised to unleash a new swarm of Officers on the American people and eat out their substance. A swarm of IRS officers. 

A New Swarm of Officers

The Republicans in Congress have gone full RINO (Republicans In Name Only). Again. Another betrayal of American citizens by “go-along to get-along” Republicans. Republican Senators have apparently signed on to a “bipartisan” infrastructure deal that will supersize the Internal Revenue Service, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal June 26-27 edition.  

The agreement with the Democrat Socialists in Congress will increase the IRS budget by $40 billion. That will increase the size of the IRS by a third over ten years. The plan is to hire tens of thousands more agents so that they can audit millions of more Americans every year. 

As the WSJ editorial board points out, this is another sneaky, dishonest con-man shell game to lift more money out of the American taxpayers’ wallets without going on record to vote for a tax increase. Republicans are conspiring with Democrats to “raise tax revenue” by sending a new swarm of IRS agents to intimidate and harass taxpayers into coughing up more of their hard-earned money. 

How? Harassment by Audit

An IRS audit means the agony of having every deduction and every business expense questioned. The income tax law is the only law in America where you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. The burden to prove your innocence is on you. If the IRS agent says you are guilty, you have to prove your innocence. Using your own time (unpaid) and at your own expense. 

This gives the Federal Government a multitude of ways to harass you. Nobody seems to know how many provisions there are in the Internal Revenue Code. Even the IRS helpline has been known to offer different answers on different days. If the IRS doesn’t know, how can you?

That’s just the way the government likes it. They can interpret the law to punish their enemies and reward their friends. There are no objective standards. Remember Lois Lerner? She became director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2005. She discriminated against conservative non-profits by denying them non-profit status. She denied many Tea Party organizations non-profit status in order to prevent their participation in the 2012 election.

Write your Senator and tell her or him to vote NO on the infrastructure bill. If this bill passes, Americans of 2022, like Americans in 1776, will be swarmed by Federal locusts harassing us and eating out our substance.

The power to tax is the power to destroy:

Here is just one story of a small business nightmare IRS audit. The one and only accountant for the small business had to stop her work to do nothing else but fetch documents for the auditor. She had no time to do customer billing and employee payroll. After a week, the IRS auditor said, “You’re clean. No discrepancies. Audit complete.” The business owner and the accountant breathed a sigh of relief. Now they could get back to serving customers and employees.

But wait! The supervisor of the IRS auditor told him, “There is always a discrepancy. You didn’t look hard enough. Go back and audit them again.” Another week of business on hold while the company accountant fetched documents for the auditor. At the end of the second audit week, the auditor again said, “Your tax filing is in order, and you don’t owe anything. No discrepancies.”

How to Squeeze Blood out of a Turnip 

The supervisor told the honest auditor, “There is always something. Go back and look harder!” The auditor went back for week three of auditing. The company accountant was so far behind in her work; she was desperate. She picked out a business deduction and said, “Isn’t this a judgment call? Disallow this one and go home, please?” He disallowed the deduction, assessed back taxes and fines, and went back to his boss. The boss was satisfied. The IRS apparently had a quota to fill with X number of deductions disallowed and Y amount of back taxes and fines to collect. Quota filled.

The audit takes your time away from making products and services for your customers or attendance at your job. No customers equal no revenue equals bankruptcy. Like the legendary water torture of drip, drip, drip until you go insane, the IRS has the power to audit, audit, audit until you go insane.