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It seems you cannot open a newspaper today without finding another new mandate or regulation being proposed by the Biden administration, all intended to take more power from the American people and give it to Washington.
President Biden and Democrats in Congress now want to force your bank or credit union to report any and every transaction of $600 or more to the IRS. This action is a huge leap from the current requirement to report transactions of $10,000 or more and is textbook government overreach. One purpose of the initiative is to capture more money from Americans to pay for the record $3.5 trillion Democrat socialist spending spree.
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) discusses the infrastructure bill making its way through Congress during a news conference held by the House Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on August 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Under the guise of holding the wealthy accountable for their fair share of taxes, the Biden IRS will actually be targeting middle America. The proposed regulation would apply to all business and personal accounts, affecting the lives of all American workers and small employers across the country. Biden’s IRS power grab is just the latest demonstration of the contempt his administration and Democrats in Congress have for business owners and job creators.
Smaller lenders and local financial institutions will be hit the hardest with the burdensome costs and complexities of reporting more of your private banking data to the IRS. Compliance, legal, and programming expenses will significantly increase operating costs for these unnecessary and unproductive activities. As these expenses are passed on to consumers, it will cost you more to do business with your financial institution, while also increasing the risk of data security and privacy breaches. The timing of these new onerous reporting requirements couldn’t be worse for businesses and consumers trying to recover from the government’s relentless over-the-top response to the CCP virus.
The National Taxpayer Advocate reports that the IRS “finished” the recent filing season with a backlog of more than 35 million tax returns still unprocessed. The IRS cannot handle their basic function in a timely or efficient manner, and now they want us to trust them with more power and greater invasion of consumer privacy?
Not only is the IRS’ new financial snooping proposal unnecessary, but it violates the principles of the 4th, 9th, and 10th Amendments to the Constitution. The Founders of this nation intended the right to privacy and property to be afforded to each citizen of this nation – no exceptions – as described in the 4th Amendment. Furthermore, the 9th and 10th Amendments together limit the reach of the federal government and protect the rights of American citizens from this kind of intrusion. The sad truth is that Democrats want more power centralized in Washington, and they want you to pay for it. Instead of reducing spending, they have turned to the IRS to help fund their woke, progressive, and intrusive policies, and there will never be enough money to pay for this socialist agenda.
President Joe Biden walks on the South Lawn after returning to the White House on September 20, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
President Biden promised that no one earning under $400,000 would face increased taxes as a result of his massive spending plans, but that is just one more lie from this president. In reality, Americans in all income brackets will suffer the consequences of out-of-control spending, higher prices, increased taxes, and more government regulations for years to come.
Requiring every American citizen to turn over their bank account information to the IRS is sadly consistent with the Biden administration’s desire to force every individual to surrender more of their freedoms to Big Government. Your body, your healthcare, your employment, your travel decisions, your worship habits, and now your financial transactions are increasingly under the control of this White House.
We cannot obey our way out of tyranny. We must resist our way out of tyranny.
Bob Good serves in the U.S. House of Representatives for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. Congressman Good is a Member of the House Budget Committee.
