Lost in Taxation

Personal Freedom and Power 106:  Funding Government

Government is not, as some people like to say, a necessary evil; it is not an evil, but a means, the only means available to make peaceful human coexistence possible. But it is the opposite of liberty. It is beating, imprisoning, hanging. Whatever a government does it is ultimately supported by the actions of armed constables. If the government operates a school or a hospital, the funds required are collected by taxes, i.e., by payments exacted from the citizens.  -Ludwig von Mises

Lost in Taxation
The IRS’s vast new ObamaCare powers.

ObamaCare requires everyone to have insurance and there are monetary penalties for individuals and businesses without proper insurance.  The IRS is responsible to enforce the rules.  Recently, Nina Olson of the IRS, indicated the need for additional employees to monitor citizens and businesses to enforce the new law.

Besides having the IRS invade everyone’s privacy and requiring compliance to the law, a portion of the new law will significantly harm small businesses, as reported by The Wall Street Journal:

Ms. Olson also exposed a damaging provision that she estimates will hit some 30 million sole proprietorships and subchapter S corporations, two million farms and one million charities and other tax-exempt organizations. Prior to ObamaCare, businesses only had to tell the IRS the value of services they purchase. But starting in 2013 they will also have to report the value of goods they buy from a single vendor that total more than $600 annually—including office supplies and the like.

The Freedom Lesson: 

The House and Senate passed ObamaCare and the President approved legislation that mandated health care for most Americans.  Associated with the mandates are compliance mandates, regulatory burdens, loss of personal privacy, fines, and increased taxes.  The expansion of government diminishes personal freedom of every American.  As President Reagan stated:  As government expands, liberty contracts.