In yet another example of government bureaucrats working in concert with Democratic politicians, someone has leaked the tax returns of wealthy individuals to ProPublica — just in time to give Sen. Elizabeth Warren and her colleagues a rallying call to “tax the rich.”
Funny how the “deep state” the media likes to mock works only in one direction. Read any transcripts of Joe Biden’s calls recently?
Meanwhile, the press defense of “civil liberties” conveniently flies out the window when these things happen. Look at the taxes these rich people paid! They don’t deserve the privacy afforded other Americans, but then do other Americans deserve it either? Something tells us that your tax return, your FBI file, your private records would easily be posted online if it served some progressive agenda.
ProPublica doesn’t allege any wrongdoing in its report; in fact, the people it profiles pay hundreds of millions in taxes. Congress knows what tax loopholes exist because Republicans and Democrats have passed them. All the person who illegally leaked these documents wants to do is be the woman with the bell yelling, “Shame!”
But before you get too caught up in the voyeurism, think about whether this is really what you want from our government. Do you want the IRS as it was under Lois Lerner, targeting Tea Party groups for special audit because they were groups Democrats didn’t believe in? Do you want a tax department that could at any moment leak your information because you tweeted something a politician didn’t like?
“It has long astonished me that left-leaning Americans are as bothered as they are by the PATRIOT Act — a concern I share, for the record — and yet are not only comfortable with the IRS as it exists, but, in many cases, would like it to become more intrusive,” writes Charles C.W. Cooke at National Review.
It’s become abundantly clear that career government employees think there are different rules when there’s a Republican in the Oval Office or a Democratic agenda to promote. Then who cares about secrets!? These tax documents are a scandal, and not the way ProPublica thinks. They are a chilling reminder that, increasingly, we have no right to a private life.