jamesbbkk

IJ is on the case but its a giant case.

The dismal performance of the IRS is but a symptom of a much larger disease which has taken root in the charters of many of the major administrative agencies in the United States today: the permit power. Private individuals are not allowed to engage in certain activities or to claim certain benefits without the approval of some major government agency. The standards for approval are nebulous at best, which makes it hard for any outside reviewer to overturn the agency’s decision on a particular application.

That power also gives the agency discretion to drag out its review, since few individuals or groups are foolhardy enough to jump the gun and set up shop without obtaining the necessary approvals first. It takes literally a few minutes for a skilled government administrator to demand information that costs millions of dollars to collect and that can tie up a project for years. That delay becomes even longer for projects that need approval from multiple agencies at the federal or state level, or both.

via The Real Lesson of the IRS Scandal | Hoover Institution.

Peters must have also wondered: Hey Johnathan, WTF? Why are you LEADING with the IG’s testimony that he informed top administration officials of the scandal back in 2012?  Don’t you realize this directly contradicts what Obama & the administration spent all this week claiming? Why the bloody blue hell would you make THAT the lede?  Are you seriously trying to give your readers the sense there’s a REAL scandal here instead of just another political witchhunt?  No man, you gotta BURY that crap and  hide it way further down in the story like this:

via Draw and STRIKE!.

In other words, if this is the case, the left’s hateful and slanderous campaign against its political foes, especially the Tea Party–the demagoguery of Obama, his fellow Taranto:

“Democrats and their supporters in the media, led by the New York Times editorial page–was sufficient to prompt the IRS agents to cast aside their professional obligations and embark on a campaign of political abuse whose effect was to ease Obama’s re-election.

In his testimony to the Senate Watergate Committee–whose hearings opened 40 years ago today–John Dean famously called that scandal “a cancer on the presidency.” If Obama, his campaign or his White House aides are directly implicated in the IRS’s abuses, this will be another cancer on the presidency, remediable by resignation or impeachment.

But if the IRS acted without direction from above–if it “went rogue” against the Constitution and in support of the party in power–then we are dealing with a cancer on the federal government. That, it seems to us, is a far direr diagnosis, one whose treatment is likely to be radical and risky.”

Best of the Web Today: President Asterisk – WSJ.com.

APPARENTLY, THEY HAD A SPECIAL UNIT FOR THE JEWS, TOO: Politico: Israel-related groups also pointed to IRS scrutiny. “The same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for tax-exempt status. The trouble for the Israel-focused groups seems to have had different origins than that experienced by conservative groups, but at times the effort seems to have been equally ham-handed. . . . Legal filings show that the problems for Z Street — and apparently for other Israel-related groups — stemmed from an obscure unit in the Cincinnati IRS office: the ‘Touch and Go Group.’”

You can’t make this stuff up. Sadly, you don’t have to. But remember, pay no attention to those voices warning of tyranny.

via Instapundit » Blog Archive » APPARENTLY, THEY HAD A SPECIAL UNIT FOR THE JEWS, TOO: Politico: Israel-related groups also pointe….

Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

CEI reviewed Freedom of Information Act requests sent between January 2012 and this spring from several environmental groups friendly to the EPA’s mission, and several conservative groups, to see how equally the agency applies its fee waiver policy for media and watchdog groups. Government agencies are supposed to waive fees for groups disseminating information for public benefit.

via EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups | WashingtonExaminer.com.

And the labor is free, by law.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/168582/

Instapundit » Blog Archive » FOX BUTTERFIELD, IS THAT YOU? With gun violence down, is America arming against an imagined threat?….

Instapundit » Blog Archive » PROPAGANDA WORKS: Gun crime has plunged, but Americans think it’s up, says study. “Gun crime has p….

Central planners try to overcome uncertainty by substituting formulas for entrepreneurial judgment. They believe that they can replace the price system with commands, but they miss the whole purpose of individual action on the free market. As Ludwig von Mises said, they make “not the slightest reference to the fact that the main task of action is to provide for the events of an uncertain future.” In that sense, central planners are no different from professional forecasters.

via The Truth About Economic Forecasting – Graeme B. Littler – Mises Daily.

But let’s set that aside. My main gripe with Hiatt’s column is that he wants us to think that people with IRAs and 401(k)s are getting “a helping hand from taxpayers” and that this is part of an “entitlement culture.”

This is statist nonsense. If somebody has an IRA and 401(k), they’re saving their own money. There’s no obligation being imposed on me or any other taxpayer.

But Hiatt presumably thinks that the government’s decision not to impose double taxation is somehow akin to a giveaway. But that only makes sense if you assume that government has a preemptive claim to all private income.

via International Liberty | Restraining Government in America and Around the World.