The South Gibson Star-Times serves the towns of Haubstadt, Owensville and Fort Branch.
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1477073
B-4 Tuesday, August 23, 2022 South Gibson Star-Times OPINION Inflation Reduction Act is not the solution A central pillar of the just-passed Inflation Reduction Act is $ 80 billion going to the IRS to hire some 87,000 new agents, doubling the current force, to chase down U.S. taxpayers who allegedly are not meeting their tax obligations. The rationale is we have a large national budget deficit - - that is, gov- ernment is bringing in less money than it spends - - so a larger army of IRS agents chasing down tax dead- beats will help solve our nation's fis- cal problems. But part of this same new law in which U.S. taxpayers are asked to spend $ 80 billion to hire more IRS agents to shake down their neigh- bors who are supposedly not paying their fair share, there is $430 bil- lion in new government spending, a large portion of which is earmarked for green energy projects of various shapes and forms. At the same time that we're ex- panding our army of tax collectors, we continue to expand government and spending at an even faster pace. The Congressional Budget Office has just released its latest Long- Term Budget Outlook, and here we get a broader picture of the problem. According to the report, "From 1972 to 2021, total federal outlays averaged 21% of GDP; over 2022- 2052 period, such outlays are pro- jected to average 26 % of GDP." The Congressional Budget Office projects that government will take on average 5% more from our na- tional economy in the next 30 years than it did on average over the last 50 years. Looking at our GDP in 2022, roughly $25 trillion, at 26 % of GDP, government spending will be over a trillion dollars more than it would have been at 21% . A trillion dollars more in spending on average per year, with another 87,000 IRS agents running after taxpayers to make sure they pay up. So, the bigger army of tax collec- tors is about helping raise money to finance ongoing expansion of gov- ernment and increasing control of government over the lives of private Americans. Why, as someone whose busi- ness is trying to improve the lives of low-income Americans, do I care about this? Turning pages forward in the CBO report, we get to the really shocking information. From 1992 to 2021, per CBO, the average growth of the U.S. economy was 2.4% per year. CBO projects that from 2022 to 2052 the average growth of the U.S. economy will be 1.7% per year. This should shock every Ameri- can, and it's getting hardly any at- tention. The more our national economy is controlled by government and politicians, the more sluggish will be growth of our economy. It stands to reason. Growth comes from en- trepreneurs, work, creativity. More government means less of all these things and slower growth. Slower growth means lower income and less opportunity. Anyone who cares about helping those who want to get ahead in America should be cheer- ing for faster growth and less gov- ernment rather than more govern- ment and slower growth. Hoover Institution economist John Cochrane has pointed out that from 1950 to 2000, the U.S. econo- my grew at 3.5% per year. Real in- come per person went from $16,000 in 1950 to $50,000 in 2000. If the economy grew from 1950 to 2000 at 2 % instead of 3.5% , notes Cochrane, income in 2000 would have risen to just $23,000 rather than $50,000. It's why, as someone who cares about helping low-income Ameri- cans get ahead and improve their lot, I care about a growing dynam- ic economy, not a bloated, sclerotic economy controlled by politicians and Washington special interests. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act takes matters in the exact oppo- site direction in which we should be going. Pretending to care about the nation's fiscal imbalances while add- ing $430 billion in new spending, all of it driven and defined by Washing- ton special interests, is the problem, not the solution. Star Parker is president of the Cen- ter for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show "Cure America with Star Parker." Race for the Cure By Star Parker Heritage Viewpoint By Amy Swearer These 11 defensive gun uses show protective benefits of Second Amendment Give Me a Break By John Stossel The Biden administration has a lot of nerve proposing to double the budget of the Internal Revenue Ser- vice and add 87,000 employees. This plan is set to become law as part of the soon-to-be-enacted In- flation Reduction Act. And it comes around the same time as the outra- geous FBI raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago com- pound in Palm Beach, Florida. The Biden administration has converted the FBI and the Justice Department into functionaries of the Democrat- ic Party's character assassination campaign. Think they will do the same with a Yankee Stadium full of new IRS auditors? They will be on search-and-destroy missions. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) pa- tronizingly dismisses any concerns about taxpayer abuses by saying, "If you're not cheating on your taxes, you have nothing to worry about." That's the language of tyrants. I personally went through a three- year dispute with the IRS, which cost me tens of thousands of dol- lars in attorney and tax accountant fees — until the IRS snoops did a "Whoops, we're sorry, we were wrong. Have a nice day." When you are under IRS investigation and the agency places a lien on your bank account, you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. Conservatives haven't (or shouldn't have forgotten) the out- rageous weaponization of the tax collection agency during President Barack Obama's administration. Obama political appointee Lois Lerner targeted the Tea Party and other taxpayer groups with a con- servative orientation. An accident? By the way, the Obama team never even apologized, and Lois Lerner ducked out on testifying before Congress. She never went to jail. Now, the folks at Openthebooks. com report that the IRS is armed with real weapons — guns, ammu- nition and military equipment. "The Internal Revenue Service, with its 2,159 'Special Agents,' spent $21.3 million on guns, am- munition and mili- tary-style equipment between fiscal years 2006 and 2019. The agency stockpiled 4,500 guns and five million rounds of am- munition." How many of the new 87,000 employ- ees will be armed? And why does a tax collection agency need guns, anyway? This story gets more sordid as we dig deeper. The IRS employee union donates 99 percent of its money to Democrats. This scam to give the IRS tens of billions of dollars will pipeline millions of dollars into the coffers of Democratic candidates. Does anyone believe that an agency that gives almost every dollar from its PAC to one party is an unbiased referee of our tax system? I hope no one believes this is to get more money from Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or Mark Zucker- berg. These billionaires have their own armies of tax accountants and lawyers. They have the resources to defend themselves from erroneous IRS tax rulings. The Republicans in the Senate of- fered an amendment to this god-aw- ful bill that would have restricted new audits to those making more than $400,000. Every Democrat said no way. This is because the geese they will pluck are the defenseless small business owners and people who make between $75,000 and $250,000 of income. My friend Dan Pilla, who is one of the experts on IRS abuses, has found that the agen- cy is trying to discourage taxpayers from hiring an attorney or going to court to get their money back. Once upon a time, liberals cared about government abuses of cit- izens' civil rights. Once upon a time, there was an American Civil Liberties Union that would have been marching in the streets against more intense government scrutiny of every fi- nancial transaction people make. Now, they are mute, be- cause the modern ACLU and other such groups are complete- ly captured by big government social- ists. If you have a con- servative voice in this country or you have any affiliation with the Re- publican Party or donate to Repub- lican candidates, they are coming after you. Maybe soon. What is perhaps worst of all about this vault of money being turned over to 150,000 IRS agents is that Democrats have voted down more money for police to stop rampant crime. They've voted down more Border Patrol agents to help keep out drug runners and criminals and coyotes. They refuse to provide the funding for the Army so that our armed forces can recruit the sol- diers and personnel we need for our national security. We could fund all of these things with a fraction of the money top Democrats such as President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY ) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) want to spend on tax agents. These are the most warped fund- ing priorities I've seen in 30 years. The IRS may soon be knocking on your door. And yes, they are here from the government. But no, they aren't here to help you. Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at Freedom Works. He is also author of the new book: "Govzilla: How The Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy." To find out more about Stephen Moore and read features by other Creators Eye on the Economy By Stephen Moore An IRS that's armed and dangerous I testified before Congress' Joint Economic Committee last month in a hearing focused on "the economic toll of gun violence." Of course, there's no doubt that gun violence imposes a tremendous cost on society, both financially and in far less readily calculable ways. How does one measure, for exam- ple, the mental and emotional toll of being shot? As I explained to the committee, however, lawful gun owners are not largely to blame for these costs, despite many insinuations to the contrary by gun control advocates. Most lawful gun owners never will harm themselves or others and never will add a single dollar to the overall bill for gun violence. Meanwhile, lawful gun owner- ship provides significant but often under-acknowledged protective benefits, enabling peaceable citi- zens to defend themselves and oth- ers far more effectively than if they were unarmed. Almost every major study on the issue has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense be- tween 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to the most recent report on the subject by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For this reason, The Daily Signal each month publishes an article highlighting some of the previous month's many news stories on de- fensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accounts here from 2019, 2020, 2021, and so far in 2022.) The examples be- low represent only a small portion of the news stories on de- fensive gun use that we found in July. You may explore more by using The Heritage Foundation's interac- tive Defensive Gun Use Database. July 3 – Surprise, Ar- izona: An armed citizen fatally shot a gunman who opened fire at a neighborhood Fourth of July gathering, police said. Witnesses said the gun- man lived in the neighborhood and had engaged in small talk and eaten a plate of food before drawing a handgun and shooting those around him. He killed two and wounded four others before being fatally shot by the armed citizen. Police said they thought the gunman's actions were un- provoked, but didn't know his motive. July 5 – Houston: A woman was bar- becuing with friends when her adult son showed up drinking and acting strangely, police said. The woman and her son went inside, where the son grabbed a rifle and fired more than 20 rounds at his mother before she fled outside. The son chased her, but was fa- tally shot by an armed neighbor who heard the gunfire and came to the woman's defense, police said. The mother suffered multi- ple gunshot wounds, but was expected to survive. No one else was injured. July 7 – Pensacola, Florida: A local sher- iff told reporters that a homeowner would "absolutely not" face charges for using an "AK-47-style" rifle to defend his home against three men who broke in and threatened him with a handgun. Police arrested two of the three men, one of whom was the subject of several active arrest warrants for violent crimes. Police were looking for a third man, who ap- parently was wounded. July 12 – Chicago: Police said that the holder of a concealed carry permit turned the tables on a teenager who started shooting at him in a restaurant parking lot. The man drew his own gun and shot his assailant in the hand and foot. July 17 – Greenwood, Indiana: A 22-year-old man with a concealed carry permit fatally shot a would- be mass shooter who opened fire in a crowded mall food court, police said. The gunman killed three people, but the permit hold- er saved countless lives by ending the shooting just 15 seconds after See GUN on page 5 Volunteers in Ukraine When Russia attacked Ukraine, "experts" said the country would fall within days. It hasn't. One reason is that the Russian military wasn't as effective as people thought. Another is that Ukrainians sur - prised the world by courageously de- fending their country. A third reason is that volunteers from everywhere stepped in to help. People with combat experience joined Ukraine's Foreign Legion. Doctors, nurses and others with medical experience are keeping the country's health care system going. Several thousand others do human - itarian work, like distributing food and medicine. Maxim Lott went to Ukraine to re- cord them at work. He rode along with ambulance driver Didrik Gunnestad, a 27-year- old volunteer from Norway. Gunnes - tad delivered supplies, and then he drove sick people out of dangerous areas. "It was learning by doing," he says. Ambulances were desperately need - ed. "Most things that happen here are done by volunteers, not government officials." Tom Palmer, an American with the Atlas Network think tank, raised more than $1 million in aid for Ukraine. He flew it to Poland and then drove some of it into Ukraine himself. He worked with Ukrainian volunteers to find out where aid was most needed. "It was just astonishing to see this network emerge," says Palmer. "It wasn't centrally directed ... ( Volun - teers) solved a lot of micro problems that big hierarchies can't see." The volunteers also reduce waste. "There is a lot of loss (in big char - ities like the Red Cross)," says Gun- nestad. "Not that someone is skim- ming off the top; it's just the cost of being a big organization." Governments are even more bu- reaucratic. Poland's government does want to help Ukraine, but its bureaucracy often makes it hard. When Gunnes - tad and Lott went to a depot where Gunnestad had previously picked up donated goods, they found that the bureaucracy had changed the rules. Now Gunnestad was supposed to write a letter to the Polish gov - ernment to get supplies. Since they didn't have time to wait, they left emp- ty-handed. Even the Ukrainian government makes it needlessly hard for volun- teers to deliver goods. They force most everyone to wait in long lines at the borders. When Lott and Gunnes- tad crossed this summer, there were still mile-long lines. Ambulances, at least, are generally allowed to skip the line. "But sometimes there's a guard who doesn't like it," says Gunnestad. "We have had patients almost dying because of guards like that." As he drove past the long line of trucks, he sighed and said, "I feel so sorry for the drivers of the trucks. Some could be in line for days, or even a week! " Many of those truckers are trying to bring in needed supplies, but "they were only allowing 400 Ukrainian trucks per day," says Palmer. "That's just nothing. Why couldn't they bring in more? If you need to inspect them, get more inspectors! " The bureaucracy didn't. "You have maybe seven check - points, but only two are open," com- plains Gunnestad. "They could at least open all seven." Lott notes, "Volunteers can't do everything. They don't supply the military or provide fuel. But they are saving lives." Gunnestad's team picks up pa- tients at overburdened hospitals and takes them to less busy facilities. They also deliver supplies to neglect- ed Ukrainian hospitals. Gunnestad says small hospitals often get noth- ing from the government or the Red Cross. "We have a chance to help places that are forgotten," he says. You can help Gunnestad do this work by donating to his GoFundMe page. It's a way to help Ukrainians without taking the risks that Gunnes - tad does. His ambulance has been hit with bullets. Fortunately, no volunteer has been hit. "I always have been the person who runs into dangerous situations," he says. "I think this work is so mean - ingful that I'm willing to die for it."