IRS To Be In Charge Of Health Care Enforcement

[mrjarrell]

Who else would you task with the job? Making sure that people buy what the government tells them to and that they pay the exorbitant fees and fines that will be levied against us. These are the same people that have corrupted the concept of innocent till proven guilty and have their own courts. On the upside..they're so incompetent that many who wish to avoid this socialist wet dream will likely be able to do so for years. On the downside is the fact that more of their agents will likely be going armed in the future to insure that you obey their law. With this in place we'll never get rid of the IRS.

From USA Today

By Phil Galewitz and Christopher Weaver, Kaiser Health News
Internal Revenue Service agents already try to catch tax cheats and moonshiners. Under the proposed health care legislation, they would get another assignment: checking to see whether Americans have health insurance.
The legislation would require most Americans to have health insurance and to prove it on their federal tax returns. Those who don't would pay a penalty to the IRS.
That's one of several key duties the IRS would assume under the bills that have been approved by the House of Representatives and Senate and will be merged by negotiators from both chambers.
The agency also would distribute as much as $140 billion a year in new government subsidies to help small employers and as many as 19 million lower-income people buy coverage.
In addition, the IRS would collect hundreds of billions of dollars in new fees on employers, drug companies and device makers, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Some critics of the health bill question whether the IRS, which has struggled in recent years with budget problems, staffing shortages and outdated computer systems, will be up to the job of enforcing the mandate and efficiently handling the subsidies.
"It's hard to see how the IRS could take on the huge responsibility it would be given under pending health care legislation without some real glitches, or worse," said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. He voted against the bill, as did every other Republican senator.

The CBO estimated the IRS would need $5 billion to $10 billion in the first decade to cover the costs of its expanded role. The IRS' annual budget is currently $11.5 billion.
Neither the House nor Senate bill includes funding for the IRS, but money could be added by House and Senate negotiators.
The IRS already has trouble meeting its primary duty: collecting taxes. By the IRS's own estimates, it failed to collect about $290 billion in taxes in 2005, the latest year for which data are available.

More at the source.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Gee, they did such a great job enforcing gun laws before 1968.

 

[rambone]

Boy, the phrase "Health Care Enforcement" just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

[jeremy]

Yea! When is the next train to anywhere else leaving...

 

[BloodEclipse]

The IRS already has trouble meeting its primary duty: collecting taxes. By the IRS's own estimates, it failed to collect about $290 billion in taxes in 2005, the latest year for which data are available.

How about trying to get good at one thing first?

 

[Bill of Rights]

How about trying to get good at one thing first?

Well... They do have the "copulation in a positive direction along a Y axis" thing down to a science....

 

[BloodEclipse]

Well... They do have the "copulation in a positive direction along a Y axis" thing down to a science....

 

[Manan]

Time to vote in true conservative constitutionalists.