Oh, dear: Byron York reports today that everybody’s least favorite government agency will be vastly more powerful if Obamacare comes to pass. (That would be the IRS.)
York writes:
“[I]f the plan envisioned by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service. Under the Democrats’ health care proposals, the already powerful — and already feared — IRS would wield even more power and extend its reach even farther into the lives of ordinary Americans, and the presidentially-appointed head of the new health care bureaucracy would have access to confidential IRS information about millions of individual taxpayers.
“In short, health care reform, as currently envisioned by Democratic leaders, would be built on the foundation of an expanded and more intrusive IRS.”
Under all the Democratic plans under consideration, a more powerful and expanded IRS would be the arbiter of whether you have an “acceptable” health plan. If you don’t, the IRS will be empowered to do what it does best: impose penalties.
The IRS will also be permitted to “share” your private financial information with other agencies.