Stop me if you’ve heard this one. So, the president walks into the White House…
He cozies up in the West Wing, hopped up on “Hope and Change!” and proceeds to devise the largest healthcare overhaul in American history.
To get the deal done, this president ducks checks and balances by writ of executive order and some shady backroom dealings. In the process of the power-grab, his sidekicks at the IRS quietly suppress the opposition’s ground game.
Fast-forward a couple years. The legislation has birthed a behemoth. Thirteen thousand pages of regulations stand seven feet tall. It’s increasingly obvious that this massive entitlement regime doesn’t just demand more taxes while diminishing our Constitution. It’s also revealed that the regulatory tough-guys at the IRS have been rewarded with enforcement authority.
Did I mention that the chief inquisitor of the political opposition will run the show? Of course, her agency will have de facto exemption from the program they’re tasked to inflict on the rest of the country.
They’re in good company: the country’s largest employer—which just so happens to be the entire federal government—won’t have to join the exchanges, either.
But it gets better. A surge of scandal floods the media cycle, exposing abuses of federal power, assaults on private property, lies to Congress, and infringements on the First Amendment. Across the political spectrum, citizens are appalled by this “separate and unequal” overreach.
Ready for the punch line?
Well, the joke’s on us. IRS control of ObamaCare’s most coercive elements is the next step toward an abusive administrative state that operates with impunity. The recent scandal uncovered familiar themes: Government intrusion into our privacy and property; bureaucrats granted new opportunities to misuse their power.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
