OBIDEN WILL USE IRS AGENTS AGAINST US !

Despite suffering through seemingly every possible pandemic-justified authoritarian power grab over the past 10 months, the weary public is freshly up in arms over the latest scheme by the leaders of the Democratic Party, and rightfully so. This time, in a maneuver as bold as it is obvious, the IRS is becoming an arm of the surveillance state.

We have seen the big-government Left use the IRS to target conservatives and Christians before. While these continued attacks aren’t surprising, the scope of this effort is.

To understand their latest play, we must understand our opponent. The pandemic has emboldened and temporarily unified the ascendant liberal-led coalition, and their attacks on individual freedoms have come at an unprecedented pace. If our resistance remains passive, they will continue to take what is rightfully ours to satisfy their thirst for power and control.

Our opposition to authoritarianism is more necessary than ever. What is endowed by our creator, bestowed by our forefathers, and protected by our Constitution is sacrosanct and must be conserved if our great American experiment is to continue.

One of those nonnegotiables is our liberty from unjustifiable intervention, especially when it comes to something as private as our banking information. On moral grounds alone, the proposal should be a nonstarter. But even pragmatically, the dangers clearly outweigh the benefits.

How exactly can we expect that a vast bureaucratic organization with potentially unlimited amounts of transaction-level information will suddenly be capable of protecting such data? And who would we hold responsible if, one day, such information is used against the innocent?

You already know the answers.

Democrats can camouflage their intent by claiming they are going after the “tax gap,” but the public can recognize a power grab when it sees one. A hypersensitivity to autocracy is in our DNA as a nation. And President Joe Biden’s desire to spend $80 billion on a newly empowered army of auditors, with access to your gross transactions, is clearly a power grab.

As usual, the hypocrisy is evident. Those who smugly shriek at Republicans and pat themselves on the back for being principled are effectively trying to turn banks into IRS chapters to report on your transactions without an iota of respect for your consent. This is why Republicans are fighting this dangerous overreach so ardently. The fact that Democrats ever considered accessing the private banking data of every bank account with at least $600 worth of transactions per year reasonable should be enough to reveal their true intentions considering that, under that proposal, nearly every person’s bank account would be accessed by the IRS, not just the accounts of the ultrarich.

Now, they have changed the threshold, from $600 to $10,000 worth in transactions, which still means that a majority will be affected. This might be strategically framed by Democrats as a concession, but it still gets them what they want. If you on average spend about $200 per week, or about $28 per day, your checking account is fair game for IRS snooping. And while it is good news that Sen. Joe Manchin does not favor it as-is, this scheme, or some other version of it, unfortunately will not go away soon.

We cannot be tricked into claiming a small victory while effectively negotiating away citizens’ privacy. With the IRS’s long history of insecurity and political animosity, it does not matter if the overreaching comes from the Right or the Left. Schemes like this are wrong, and our civil society must demonstrate its disapproval.

Democrats will refurbish old Marxist tricks to shift blame away from themselves in promotion of self-serving social discontent. They will tell us that this is all about making the rich pay their “fair share,” an ambiguous amount perpetually shifting to fit the momentary needs of the Left.

They will lie to our faces as they slip their hands into our pockets. This fight is too consequential, and we must not give an inch.

Barry Moore represents Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.