What if you had to make a business trip overseas tomorrow only to find out that, even though the IRS does not issue your passport, the IRS has revoked your passport? This is a possible reality if Senate Bill 1813 passes through Congress.
SB 1813 is titled, Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Act of 2012. But, just like the NDAA, this bill has become a Trojan horse for an assault on the constitutionally protected rights of the people of this nation. Inserted deep within this bill, in section 40304, is a provision that gives the IRS the power to revoke your passport for a “seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000.” There appears to be no requirement for a judgment by a court; no conviction for fraud or evasion is required, only a “certification by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue”. This is a violation of your right to due process. There is also no provision for Congressional review or approval, therefore this removal of your passport is facilitated by an unelected official who is completely immune from political control of the people. This is a prime example of Legislation without representation. Sure the Senate and House must pass it, but after that the people’s representation is completely removed and a regulatory agency becomes the dictator of the common born rights of Americans.
What does the IRS have to do with your passport? How can non-payment of taxes be the impetus to remove your proof of citizenship or your right to freely travel? Doesn’t the removal of your passport practically affect the status of your citizenship? Are we now forced to believe that common rights of Americans, inherited from our Creator and the blood of our forefathers, are bought by our taxes? If this is true, we have been truly removed from the character of freemen to the state of tributary slaves.
For if our Trade may be taxed why not our Lands? Why not the Produce of our Lands & every thing [sic] we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our Charter Right to govern & tax ourselves– If Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal Representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the Character of free Subjects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves? [Samuel Adams, May 15, 1764, Boston Record Commissioners’ Report, vol. 16, pp. 120-122, emphasis added]
Consistent with recent legislation attacking our Constutionally protected rights, this section is infested with overbroad and vague language. What does “seriously delinquent tax debt” mean? The language seems to imply that it is limited to debts of $50,000, but is it really? Must a debt be “seriously delinquent” in time AND be at least $50,000 in debt? There is no official definition to make this limitation. How long before we see the limits of the term “seriously delinquent tax debt” further expanded? If the monetary threshold is $50,000, what does it take to accrue a debt of $50,000 to the IRS? I personally know of a man who owed $10,000 to the IRS through no fault of his own; he received bad advice from his bank. His debt remained unknown to him for 3 years until the IRS sent him a notice that his original $10,000 debt is now upwards of $25,000.00 with fines and penalties. This man is no millionaire, but a middle class retired blue collar worker. And if the IRS can establish that $50,000 is the price of your rights, how long before that price becomes $20,000 or $10,000?
I was wondering what Thomas Jefferson would think about senate bill 1813 with the attached amendment giving new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports.
Thomas Jefferson Said
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people…they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Experience has shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows us that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.
I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
In matters of style, swim with the current; In matters of principle, stand like a rock.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Most bad government has grown out of too much government.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.
The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.
The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.
The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.
The Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
There is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose.
Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.
Upon the altar of God I pledge eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
One man with courage is a majority.
Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today.
(yes,all the above are Thomas Jefferson quotes)
After reading his quotes it is easy to see that Thomas Jefferson one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence would have opposed the attached amendment in senate 1813 giving new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports. This bill 1813 has already passed the senate. If you oppose the bill and the attached amendment, it is very important that you contact your representatives to voice your opposition and instruct them to oppose senate bill 1813 and remove the amendment giving new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports removed. It is very easy to contact your representatives by email, here is the link. https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Thomas Jefferson would not just complain he would attempt to have this bill defeated.