After the Biden administration announced that it plans to track every American bank account with $600 or more via the Internal Revenue Service, Georgia’s Tea Party Patriots responded with a harsh rebuke.
“The Biden Administration apparently wants to compound its previous failures by proposing legislation that would require all banks to report to the IRS account information on bank accounts with a balance of $600 or more, regardless of whether it is a personal or business account,” the group said in a press release. “That’s virtually every bank account in the country. This is a contemptible invasion of privacy that would affect almost every single American who has a bank account. The IRS has politically persecuted conservative organizations, including ours. Any plan to give that organization even more power to threaten and intimidate Americans must be resoundingly rejected, defeated, and never proposed again.”
During the height of the Tea Party movement, then-President Barack Obama’s IRS unfairly delayed and sometimes denied the tax-exempt status for nonprofit organizations based on their names. Groups with names like “Tea Party” or “patriots” were wrongfully targeted.
That issue was eventually resolved in 2017, when the Department of Justice (DOJ) settled with 41 plaintiffs, admitting its fault.
“We hope that today’s settlement makes clear that this abuse of power will not be tolerated,” then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.
President Joe Biden served as vice president during the scandal.
Now, some are worried that IRS will abuse its power again.
“The price tag of the Democrat’s massive spending bills is deeply concerning, but let’s not forget that they are also trying to give the IRS the ability to spy on any bank account with over $600. The last thing the government needs is more power,” Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor said.
Josh Mandel, a U.S. Senate candidate from Ohio, accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing the IRS to spy on Americans.”
Biden is weaponizing the IRS to spy on Americans w/ more than $600 in their bank accounts.
This is fundamentally un-American and violates our 4th Amendment rights.
How about this, Joe — stay out of our pocketbooks and open YOUR books.
Put all federal expenditures online! pic.twitter.com/bSLF2WxbEg
— Josh Mandel (@JoshMandelOhio) September 28, 2021
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) announced last week that he signed onto a letter with several other members of Congress opposing the administration’s proposal.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network.
Background Photo “Home of the Internal Revenue Service” by Joshua Doubek. CC BY-SA 3.0.
