IRS To Add 16500 Agents To Enforce Heath Insurance Mandate
Posted by Scott @ 12:09 pmMar 19
House Republicans said Thursday that the health care overhaul will expand IRS authority by giving agents the power to verify acceptable health care coverage and fine or confiscate the tax refunds of Americans without coverage.
Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, a panel that oversees taxes and health issues, also charged that IRS audits will likely increase if health care legislation is passed. They added the IRS will require up to $10 billion to administer the new program. They also claimed the IRS may need to hire 16,500 additional employees.
“This dangerously expands IRS authority,” said Representative David Camp, (R., Mich.), the ranking Republican on the Committee on Ways and Means. “Most Americans will find it shocking and troubling.”
Rep. Charles Boustany (R., La.) led the investigation into the effect of the health care legislation on IRS authority. “This is a vast expanse of power that the American people need to know about,” he said. link
The Federal government will add 16,500 new IRS agents at a cost of 10 Billion dollars to enforce the new health insurance mandate. This is an unprecedented expansion of power and control, especially considering that the central government has no authority under the constitution to force anyone to purchase anything.
The crippling new taxes and fines that will be heaped on small businesses is a mammoth job killer. This will make America even less competitive than we are now, giving China and India even more of an upper hand. I don’t see how any person or politician could support this legislation unless they are actively seeking to bankrupt and destroy this country.
Obama said he was going to “fundamentally transform” this country, but into what is the question. I think Glenn Beck has it right. The progressives are trying to bring down the system in a effort to transform our country into a European socialist system. A system where there is no incentive for individual achievement and everyone is enslaved to mediocrity under a collectivist ideology.
This is the worst administration and worst president since FDR.
Paying for national health care will cost the government billions, but help is on the way. The best income producing arm of the government is the IRS, each dollar spent on the salary of one of its employees brings back thousands. The hiring of 16,500 new agents will pump billions into empty vaults. They will hunt down free riders who refuse to pay their dues. The new tax collectors will make sure that no cheater is left behind.
melvin polatnick wrote:
”They will hunt down free riders who refuse to pay their dues.”
I have a feeling you’re not joking. What does “free rider” mean? You mean people who don’t subscribe to a government mandate to purchase a service or good from a profit making entity. People who oppose a fine-penalty-jail-property confiscation to support people who won’t pay a penny for a health care policy. Your kind can do cartwheels if the corrupt Congress allows 10-20 million illegal alien lawbreakers(amnesty recipients) to become part America’s new free health care system. Hell, that alone will encourage them to bring in all of their families to come get some too-hey then they send for all their friends – they can get amnesty too.
You are the cheater bud! You have obviously no concept of the Representative Republic of America as set forth by the Founding Fathers of this once great country. Since you seem to like socialism, with a little heavy-handed Chicago-style thuggery politics -please take the lot of you back to Russia.
If you want to respond with the typical progressive diatribe, I’ll save you the trouble.
“He’s a racist for not wanting to give Latino illegals free care after they shot each other in the street with stolen guns.”
“He’s against giving children of illegal free everything – He hates the children”
the 16,000 or 16,500 or 12,500 new IRS employees (depending on which blog you read) is false. It appears that the numbers are imagined by the Heritage Foundation in their “analysis” of the CBO report. You will also find on blogs that this report came from the Joint Economic Committee and the House Ways & Means which is misleading as it is from the Republican’s only.
Now I would imagine there would be additional hires our outsoucing however there is not going to be 16000 plus IRS storm troopers swooping down to get that $95.00 fine from you foolish neighbor who refuses to purchase insurance when he can.
In fact From the Washington Post: “The law specifically says that no criminal action or liens can be imposed on people who don’t pay the fine. If this actually leads to a world in which large numbers of people don’t buy insurance and tell the IRS to stuff it, you could see that change. But for now, the penalties are low and the enforcement is non-existent”.
Maddie,
The assertions in your reply are nonsense. Anyone who can count will realize that policing a 300 million+ individual mandate will require a herculean effort on the part of the IRS. I don’t need anyone to confirm that for me. While it is an estimate, I doubt 16k-17k will be enough to get the job done.
The $95 you mention is only the penalty for the first year of mandates and that will rise to $1900+ over the next several years, depending on income level. There can be no exemption for preexisting conditions without an enforceable individual mandate. They must go hand in hand.
As far as penalties are concerned, the IRS MUST go after all those who don’t pay. Otherwise, the entire scheme falls apart. All of the young, healthy citizens who they are counting on to pick up the slack for the poor and elderly, will simply not purchase anything.
In a recent article from politico…
Many of us believe this naked redistribution of wealth and unconstitutional individual mandate will be ruled as such by SCOTUS. If not, liberty loving citizens who still believe in individual responsibility over collectivism will overturn this dangerous legislation through careful votes at the ballot box.
“Give me liberty or give me death” – Patrick Henery
Maddie,
Perhaps we are dealing with projections, but the Progressives continue to paint this in the best case scenario. Our Federal Government never underestimates or under budgets do they?
It is also news to me that the IRS is now compassionate. They are nothing but a collection agency for the Federal Government, especially the corrupt Treasury Dept.
The Ways and Means minority report found here states their could be as many as 16,500 new agents hired. Seeing that the government always underestimates budgets and enforcement action with any legislation, I have to lend the minority report some creedence. http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/IRS_Power_Report.pdf
As with this new statement by the Ways and Means debunking this, perhaps that number of agents projected may need to be decreased to account for the enforcement efforts of HHS. From the interview http://waysandmeans.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=11097
He has no clue what will be needed. There’s are no dis qualifiers here.
The key is the IRS use of the word “envision”. It doesn’t get any more open-ended than that.
Back to envisioning again. I would not trust this Democrat any more than the Republicans or the IRS.
First, I’m not buying this puff piece on the IRS’s new compassion. That’s BS and you know it.
Second, on the last comment by the IRS. No, the way this administration works is they assume they can conduct whatever is not spelled out in legislation, which enforcement is not, and they will partake in it.
I hate to be mean, but please get a clue. This is merely a PR puff piece.