Revoke passports for back taxes...that's the next step

[aequalsa]

So...bill of attainder, anyone? The number of civil rights that have disappeared in the last couple years alone is becoming breathtaking. As in...making it hard to breath. Not to break the internet rule about Hitler comparisons, but weren't their a few other times in history where you weren't allowed to leave the country if someone in the party decided you couldn't? Might be time to move to a place with freedom....like China maybe...

‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’, includes a provision that allows the federal government to revoke passports of Americans accused of owing back taxes.

....

“There is no requirement that the tax payer be guilty of or even charged with tax evasion, fraud, or any criminal offense — only that the citizen is alleged to owe the IRS back taxes of $50,000 or more,”

http://www.infowars.com/irs-travel-ban-revoking-citizenship-by-stealth/

[FeatherFall]

I just glanced at that peice this morning. I think the Republicans will shoot it down, and then suffer the accusation of "pandering to rich-tax evaders." Nevermind that killing this monstrosity would be an act in defense of civil liberties.

[CptnChan]

I found your post extra funny because this is the scenario my brother is in, and he actually did go to China! Maybe he'll never come back now..... :/

[Eiuol]

InfoWars? I don't trust any place associated with Alex Jones. Where in the bill does it in fact say "allows the federal government to revoke passports of Americans accused of owing back taxes"?

[Reidy]

A quick search on passport Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act turned up at least one legitimate news story. You don't have to take his word for it.

[aequalsa]

I just glanced at that peice this morning. I think the Republicans will shoot it down,

I don't know. I've gone way past hoping Republicans will protect any liberties that the psuedo-communists present...78-22 in the senate doesn't seem to bode well.

[aequalsa]

InfoWars? I don't trust any place associated with Alex Jones. Where in the bill does it in fact say "allows the federal government to revoke passports of Americans accused of owing back taxes"?

‘SEC. 7345. REVOCATION OR DENIAL OF PASSPORT IN CASE OF CERTAIN TAX DELINQUENCIES.

‘(a) In General- If the Secretary receives certification by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue that any individual has a seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000, the Secretary shall transmit such certification to the Secretary of State for action with respect to denial, revocation, or limitation of a passport pursuant to section 4 of the Act entitled ‘An Act to regulate the issue and validity of passports, and for other purposes’, approved July 3, 1926 (22 U.S.C. 211a et seq.), commonly known as the ‘Passport Act of 1926’.

[Reidy]

The story that #5 links to sees trouble ahead for the bill in the House, but it doesn't quite predict failure.

Plato, in the Crito, took up the question of what are the minimal conditions of legitimacy for a government (a question Locke and Rand later raised). Socrates says that if you've chosen to stay in a community you've thereby accepted its laws. This is why he won't accept his disciples' offer help him escape. That would imply or at least suggest that a necessary condition of legitimacy is that people be free to leave. The bill in question wants to take away even that.