IRS Takes The Fifth, But You Can’t

By Robert W. Wood – IRS and Treasury officials surely don’t like to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Who would? But despite all the hoopla and hearings, the IRS scandal just keeps on rolling.

You might think your foreign bank records are purely personal too, especially today. Nope, the government can make you incriminate yourself. Lawyers petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari, but the Court just said no here. So, some people are being forced to produce bank records that will land them in jail.

Yet you have to admit it presents an interesting juxtaposition. An IRS official can take the Fifth. A taxpayer? more> http://tinyurl.com/povncsh

Related>

• Emails Offer New Details on IRS Targeting, John D. McKinnon and Siobhan Hughes, WSJ.com
• Ways and Means seeks more IRS tales, Peter Schroeder, Hill
• Analysis: In any scandal, lying to Congress is tough to prove, Joan Biskupic and Kim Dixon, Reuters
• On IRS issue, senior White House aides were focused on shielding Obama, Philip Rucker and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
• Former IRS chief receives congressional tongue-lashing, Bernie Becker, Hill
• Tempers flare as GOP questions Lew over IRS targeting timetable, Peter Schroeder, Hill

6 Questions Everyone Should Ask The IRS

By Robert W. Wood – The lackluster IRS testimony so far suggests we may never know what happened, who did what, who knew, when they knew and worse. Confusion and Staff Troubles Rife at I.R.S. Office in Ohio.

Amid all the noise, many Americans should ask simpler questions:

• Why is the tax law so horribly complex?
• Can I feel secure that I will be dealt with fairly by the IRS?
• Doesn’t the IRS police its employees?
• Why does it seem that there’s always someone getting away with something in the tax world?
• Can I feel secure that my private taxpayer information will remain private?
• Why is staying off the IRS radar so important?

more> http://tinyurl.com/bc4q3rc

Not in the spirit of Hayek

BOOK REVIEW

Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics, Author: Nicholas Wapshott.

By Nicholas Wapshott – Friedrich Hayek has become the patron saint of conservative intellectuals – and with good reason. He went head to head with John Maynard Keynes in 1931 in an effort to stop Keynesianism in its tracks. Hayek failed, but his attempt gave him mythical status among thinkers who deplore big government and central management of the economy.

Hayek became a conservative hero a second time with publication of his Road to Serfdom (pdf)  (1944) that suggested the larger the state sector, the more there was a tendency to tyranny. Many of today’s Hayekians harden up Hayek’s carefully expressed thoughts to declare that all government is potentially despotic, while also ignoring his arguments in favor of governments providing a generous safety net for the less advantaged, including a home for every citizen and universal health care. more> http://tinyurl.com/c3lylpc