16,000 New IRS Agents Could Be On the Way

Buried in the depths of the nearly thousand pages that make up the ObamaCare legislation are provisions to provide enforcement mechanisms for the president’s health care takeover. And the muscle behind that enforcement looks to be about 16,000 new IRS agents.

According to a report from Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, the ObamaCare legislation expands the authority of the IRS and gives them new powers when dealing with American taxpayers. The report shows that IRS agents will now be empowered to determine if a taxpayer has “acceptable” health care coverage and can fine citizens up to 2 percent of their income for failure to prove they have health coverage.

The ObamaCare legislation also stipulates that the IRS may need an additional $10 billion over the next decade to administer the program, along with as many as 16,500 new agents. If one of these new agents determines that a person’s health coverage is not acceptable, the IRS will also have the power to confiscate portions of a taxpayer’s tax refunds to pay for any federal penalties.

This is a dangerous expansion of the power of the IRS, and troubling new evidence that the real goal of ObamaCare was not to improve coverage but to take more control of the lives of the American people. The federal government, through the IRS, will now have the power to make decisions that are better left up to American families. Health coverage decisions will now be made in cubicles in IRS buildings instead of kitchen tables in American homes.