A Setback for the Merry Men of the IRS?

Although I disagree with the idea that the government "needs a tax collector," I do agree with Investor's Business Daily that, "We're not truly free if the IRS or any other agent of the government has the latitude to carry on as the IRS has for decades." From an editorial there, which also reports a significant legal victory for a political group the agency persecuted:

... The IRS probes, pricks, agitates and bullies during fishing expeditions in which ordinary Americans are treated as criminals. Without a warrant, the IRS has the authority to demand to examine any American's personal papers and financial documents. It can seize private property with no trial. Agents have been known to dig into private lives just because they see someone driving a nice car.

For some within the walls of the IRS, all this is sport.

How can such an agency exist in a free society? But then, we're not truly free if the IRS or any other agent of the government has the latitude to carry on as the IRS has for decades. Free people don't live in constant fear of a government inquiry and are not perpetually afraid that the tax collector's boot will suddenly land on their neck. Nor are they ever anxious that an innocent slip-up will wreck their lives. [bold added]

Just the thought of wasting my time preparing taxes, so that countless fools can pretend to themselves that some "break" or other is a good deal angers me, let alone that the vast majority of the money is spent on government programs directly at odds with the proper purpose of government.

Sadly, until a significant number of people begin actively opposing the idea that anything goes in the name of altruistic ends, we will be saddled with the IRS and government officials with the means and resources to tyrannize. As Yaron Brook and Don Watkins once put it, "It's time to kill the 'Robin Hood' myth."

-- CAV