November 30, 2005

Came across this letter to President Bush while perusing one of the mailing lists that I receive (and occasionally read).
Dear Mr. President,
We are writing you today regarding the IRS, the most un-American institution
of our government.
We have accessed the IRS website to find a way to speak with a human being
regarding a tax number for the estate of a family member as it is required
for estate processing. Using the only number that can be found on the
website and checked against the records of several legal firms in the area
as the number to get those answers, all the telephone has done for two days
is ring busy and after a period of time, disconnect. This is two days of
labor listening to a telephone ring. This is not the only time I have had
trouble with the IRS and the first contact was much worse.
We were in a catastrophic auto accident a few months after I made a mistake
and had to take money from an IRA. My wife was near death (she has recovered
to a small degree since) and I was badly broken and we both spent the next
four months in the hospital. All of that time the IRS was on us and even
began taking personal property without a hearing. Laying in serious
condition in the hospital, I spent every available moment attempting to
mortgage assets to pay the tax bill, as they continued harassment. If I put
money in my checking account to pay bills, it was confiscated upon deposit.
Even with verification that we were attempting to obtain mortgages and with
clear evidence that we were likely (and subsequently were) approved, the
harassment continued.
Following release from the hospital, my wife, now paralyzed and in a neck
and body brace and I, barely able to walk, went to the IRS servive center in
Saginaw, Michigan, to ask that the IRS back off a little as we worked,
diligently, to get them paid. They refused.
I am sure you have heard similar and certainly worse cases than this, but it
shows me that the third word in the name, service, is not what this agency
is about unless you attach a perverse meaning to the word.
We are just regular Americans. We are not criminals and we are right with
all creditors and have always been so. A quick check by the IRS of our
credit would have shown that but instead, we were treated like criminals.
This is a rogue agency out of control.
Further, the interpretations of tax law are in the hands of the IRS and it
is the only court in the country that assumes guilt rather than innocence. I
find no virtue in this supposition.
Let’s take an example. If I were an accountant and earned only $30,000 for
my services as such, yet other accountants earn $60,000 for their services,
the IRS can insist that I, too, earned $60,000 and force me to pay taxes on
that amount unless that I can prove that I did not receive that amount. How
can one prove that one did not receive that amount?
Our tax laws are archaic, burdensome and are completely against the American
ideal in which you are entitled to the money you earn, all of it, no matter
how much it is. The graduated income tax is socialistic in nature and
stifles productivity, right down to the person working overtime and
determining it is not worth the effort as the government will take the
rewards for doing so.
You commissioned a panel led by former elected officials to study the tax
gathering process in the U.S. with the expectation that they would return to
you a fair process in which productivity is rewarded, thus enhancing
business and with which the citizenry would be dealt with in a fair manner.
They instead returned to you only changes that would keep the current unfair
and burdensome tax code in place.
This tax code is no longer in place to gather money from the citizenry but
rather a method of social engineering and reelection. This is absolutely
wrong. We don’t need social engineering. We need social responsibility. We
don’t need people to be reelected through contributions by organizations
seeking different treatment. We need our lawmakers to be reelected through
performance. We need a new tax code.
There is one plan out there that eliminates the pariah, the IRS. It reduces
the points of income from millions to a much smaller number. It is a radical
departure from the current tax structure, not allowed by the framers of our
constitution, to a tax system that was allowed. That tax structure is the
Fair Tax.
I am asking you to take the lead here. I am asking you to have the fortitude
to propose something radically different. I am asking you to back this
revenue neutral plan to free the American citizen and business to do what we
do best – produce without penalty. At the same time you will fix Social
Security without reducing benefits.
You cannot be reelected. Your two terms are on the wane. You have an
opportunity to step up and give the American people a much better chance to
compete, to earn and to save. America is already the place to be on this
globe. We are running into hard times in competetion with other restrictive
governments and their manipulations allow their companies to compete, though
not really in a fair manner. By releasing the tax disadvantages that hamper
American growth, we will boldly go forth and we will permanently take our
place as the greatest economy in the world, without challenge.
Once again, Mr. President, please step up, take the lead, and usher in a tax
system that is fair, revenue neutral and growth oriented. Please promote the
Fair Tax from the bully pulpit which you currently control.
By the way, a really important side benefit would be the elimination of the
SS style IRS. The American people will love you for it. The American people
will stand behind you and America will grow once again in a way such that
you can hardly imagine.
God bless you, Mr. President, our troops and our nation.
Sincerely yours,
Michael L. Spawr and Nancy L.K. Spawr