Even though the press goes out of its way to avoid scandals that impugn the integrity of government agencies (like the recent disclosure that DMV employees in California were selling illegal driver's licenses on the black market, a story that ran a couple of times before it disappeared, and which never made it to prime time news programs), every now and then the corruption is on such a vast scale that the press feels that its credibility may be on the line if it fails to report it. But even without the press doing its job properly, Americans have developed an implicit understanding that everything is far worse than the media lets on.

Some time ago it was disclosed that 60% of the operations of the Internal Revenue "Service" were not auditable. What this means to average people is that one of the most hated agencies of the United States Government cannot be held to account for its actions. While ordinary people are filling the prisons and jails of America with barely a protest from the supposedly "free press," agencies like the IRS are doing things like conducting vendettas against political groups that want to do away with the IRS, with impunity. The mere suggestion that someone should not pay "their" taxes is illegal, despite the existence of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment; this is because one is inducing another person to commit an illegal act. Ironically, the media continuously pushes the idea that when someone acts to defend themselves -- such as by not paying taxes to a predatory system -- that this will create a burden on everyone else, by asserting the fiction that a failure to pay the Government is really a breach of good faith to the American people. When pressed, the whole thing comes down to the reality that if the state cannot raise the funds it needs because certain individuals avoid paying taxes, that they will increase the burden on everyone else by raising the taxes of the general population! The logic behind this comes down to a close parallel with organized crime, the thugs demanding the payments openly on the basis that they will cause harm to one's friends and family if one does not comply with their demands.

At this point it is important to distinguish a genuine public contribution to the maintenance of the state, from an act of theft. A contribution is a voluntary donation made from the kindness of the heart of the donor, possibly because he was moved by the genuine need of that requesting party. If the suggestion of a PENALTY of any kind is introduced should the individual fail to make a contribution, then the transaction is tainted by coercion, and we must all ask ourselves why we should have to be coerced to support our own government. This is of extreme importance, because under the influence of "gangster capitalism" (which is not to infer that all capitalism is of the gangster variety), people have become obsessed with indulging themselves, and the needs of others are deemed unworthy of the individual's attention; this is the reason why our American community has disintegrated, and the only answers suggested by the politicians of the republic are punitive in nature. The characterization of concern for the humanitarian needs of the human population as "communism" is clear-cut evidence of the moral bankruptcy of the republic, because international mega-corporations are no more the beneficiaries of private property than is the Federal Government itself. All their holdings derived of property that, until it was transferred to them, was public property.

The Federal Government is the richest institution on the Earth. It does not need the taxes paid by American citizens to operate. The entire national debate about balancing the budget, and imposing harsher penalties on citizens who fail to pay taxes, is all SHOW meant to demonstrate the determination of the ruling class to sustain their social control over the American Nation. This is why the Federal Government will sell $5-10 billion dollars of gold and silver off of public lands in the Four-Corners region for pennies. It is an act of power meant to clarify to the whole people that the Government will do what it wants, even if the whole nation suffers.

In the March issue of Money magazine, there were the results of a test it conducted of accountants and tax-preparers. They asked 45 "experts" to complete a tax return for a fictitious American family. Not only was EVERY answer WRONG, but no two experts even came up with the same answer! Fewer than 25% even came within $1,000.00 of the correct answer. Perhaps the most interesting result, and the most ominous to be sure, was the wide range of answers: The lowest estimate of tax "liability" came out to $36,336, and the highest estimate came out to $94,438!

The reason this happened is because the tax code is a SWAMP devised by lawyers and politicians, the beneficiaries of the system. The IRS has 480 tax forms. Every year it sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions. Laid end to end, this confusing mass of bureaucratic paperwork could CIRCLE THE EARTH 28 times! In fact, the U.S. tax code is 7 times longer than the Bible! 293,760 trees give their lives for the publication of rules and regulations that are designed to make life harder for the average American. The ultimate evidence that the difficulty to navigate the tax code was done intentionally (in order to give IRS employees final say in every case), can be found in the so-called 1040EZ "easy" tax form, which has 31 pages of fine print attached to it.

Additionally, the IRS routinely gives out incorrect answers to tax questions, for which it refuses to bear any responsibility whatsoever. In 1993 alone the IRS gave out 8.5 million INACCURATE answers to taxpayers. That same year the Internal Revenue "Service" sent out 33 million penalty notices demanding money for 140 different reasons. This penalty process has gotten so out of control, one taxpayer was fined $155.27 for an underpayment of ONE PENNY! In a similar case the IRS attempted to fine a company $46,806.37 for an alleged underpayment of ten cents! Of course, should anyone complain, they are automatically shouted down by a chorus of do-gooder media celebrities (such as journalists who earn $1 million a year and more), for being unpatriotic. The idea that defending one's self from predatory institutions is unpatriotic flies in the face of reason.

Of course the "services" performed by the IRS do not come cheap. The budget for the tax- collection agency has skyrocketed from less than $300 million in 1955 to nearly $10 billion in 1995, (and to top it off, it is impossible for any auditors to determine where this money is being spent). The very idea that the Federal budget can be balanced when no one can say with any authority where all the money it now collects is going, is not only contradictory, IT IS SUSPICIOUS! The IRS now employs more than 100,000 workers, more than ALL the other government regulatory agencies combined. (And Federal workers enjoy the very best job security, salary, benefits and pension packages in the world).

Yet the overt cost of the IRS's operational budget pales in comparison to the costs imposed by the U.S. tax code on the American economy. According to the IRS's own studies, filling out tax forms annually requires 5.4 BILLION hours of taxpayers' time. A recent survey conducted by Fox News shows that the system has become so confusing that half of all taxpayers now pay someone else to figure out their taxes.

Time is money, of course, and according to the Tax Foundation income taxes impose a $157 billion in "compliance costs" every year, an amount that on average imposes a burden of more than $1,300.00 per American taxpayer! Additionally, the taxes at this time (1997) are the highest they have ever been in the history of the republic. Taxes now consume the largest portion of the average family's budget, exceeding the cost of housing, food, clothing, and transportation combined.

The burden on business is even bigger (unless you have the political clout to donate to the political campaigns of politicians, who champion your needs when tax laws are written). To cite one example there is a provision called the "alternative minimum tax," and what it dictates is a system for businesses to calculate their taxes using two different methods, binding the business to pay the highest estimate! Hardly seems fair, does it? Small businesses are hit the hardest, those responsible for the largest share of job creation in the U.S., incurring more than $7.00 in costs for every $1.00 collected by the Federal Government.

It doesn't take a political scientist to understand that fairness is the cornerstone of law and justice, and when the Government is not fair it causes a national grass-roots backlash. This is what we are facing today, and the reality is that the media has already sided with the Government against the public interest. For all the loud political debate among Republican Party members about shutting down the IRS, the likelihood of such a move is next to nil. The reason is the same reason why there will not be any campaign financing reform: The people with the power to change the system are also its BENEFICIARIES.

The only person to ever openly acknowledge that the IRS is an out of control bureaucracy is the Regent of the United States of America. The Regent is the only public personage in America who has signed legal documents guaranteeing that should the republic be retired in favor of the restoration of the monarchy, that the IRS would be unconditionally abolished and dismantled, so that it ceases to exist. (Anyone interested in the program of the Nationalist Movement can find the specifics in the Nationalist Manifesto).

SOURCE: Data derived from the Orange County Register COLUMNS section, Sunday, April 6, 1997, from an article written by Daniel J. Mitchell, McKenna senior fellow in political economy at the Heritage Foundation.