They're reading 1984 like it was a how-to manual

Senate Passes Bill to Let IRS Take Passports From Tardy Taxpayers:

The Senate passed a highway construction bill and included in the highway construction bill, which is supposed to be about highway construction, a provision to take the passports of anyone the IRS claims might owe more than $50,000 in back taxes. There doesn't need to be a trial or going before a judge at all. The IRS just needs to claim someone owes the money and they can't leave the US until they pay up and then go through the process afterwards of appealing the... well, it can't be called a judgement because there's no judge or defense attorney or  protection under the Fourth and Fifth Amendment and it can't be fought in a federal court. There's not a lot of people fleeing the country to avoid paying their taxes, either. The Republicans in the Senate fought against this but failed. The Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid (who's a Mormon but never had any of the anti-Mormon attacks Romney gets from the media), put it in the bill but won't discuss it with the media.

The House Republicans have said they won't support this and even Obama has talked about vetoing a bill with this in it. My gut says that it's going to be used by the Obama campaign to complain about the Republicans in Congress; everything is either the fault of Bush or the House being controlled by Republicans since Jan 2011. The other possibility is that it can be used against Republican donors. Obama recently called out eight donors to Romney BY NAME, saying that "Quite a few have been on the wrong side of the law," even though none of them have been indicted or accused of any crimes. It's an old tactic (the Clintons early in their administration took copies of dozens of FBI files on their opponents to the White House as blackmail) but the Obama administration is taking it further. On the whim of a bureaucrat, your right to travel as a free citizen can be taken away. The Obama administration wanted to force those bidding on federal contracts to disclose which campaigns they donated to but have stopped trying to do so after public pressure. 


If you're a policy wonk, you've heard the phrase 'chilling effect' before. It means that X will make it less likely that people will do Y out of fear of retribution. The Obama administration is throwing out as many chilling effects as they can, partly because massive bureaucracy creates areas of regulation never dreamed up by Congress and partly because they like it. I'll do a whole post later about what I call the 'Nixon test', but when I judge laws and regulations by asking if I'd be comfortable with Nixon having that power and not liking me. If the President of the United States  calls you out during a speech by name, saying you've been on the wrong side of the law and are questionable for donating to his opponent is a powerful and terrifying thing. Bureaucrats that support the president on the federal or state or local level can be inspired to look for ways to investigate or attack you. Remember 'Joe the Plumber'? Obama came on his lawn, started talking to him and announced that, at a certain point, Obama thought you'd have made enough money and the government should spread the rest around? A state official went through several databases to get dirt on 'Joe the Plumber' because he asked a question that Obama fumbled the answer to. Obama was elected to the Senate in part because his campaign went after sealed divorce records in the primary and general election. 


They're reading 1984 like it was a how-to manual.

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