“On matters of style, swim with the current. On matters of principle stand like a rock.” – Thomas Jefferson

For over 10 years, the FairTax® campaign has warned about the politicization of the IRS. Events over the past nine months have only served to heighten this concern. Consider the following revelations:

• The IRS admitted to and apologized for targeting certain conservative leaning groups.
• The senior IRS official at the center of the targeting, Lois Lerner, pleaded the 5^th during questioning by members of a House Oversight Committee.
• The Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee released an email from another senior IRS official confirming the IRS had been “off-planning” this targeting as early as June 2012.
• A senior Senator publicly requested the Executive Branch use the IRS and bypass Congress to weaken and curtail funding for certain conservative leaning 501(c)(4)’s.
• The Chairman of Ways and Means stated the IRS has targeted established conservative 501(c)(4)’s for audits.
• The IRS proposed new rules that would redefine political activities by 501(c)(4)’s and effectively extinguish their 1^st Amendment right to free political speech. Thankfully, opposition has been swift and strong and is coming from the left and the right.

This cascading series of events should strike fear in the heart of every single American citizen.

Today, the IRS may target you for your political beliefs.Tomorrow it could be the color of your skin, your gender or your religious beliefs. Once you begin power sliding down the slippery slope, it’s impossible to predict where you might land.

There is a way out of this increasingly dangerous mess – a way in which citizens do not have to fear their elected officials or their government. It is the FairTax Plan.

The FairTax eliminates the income tax while defunding and disbanding the IRS. The FairTax institutes a progressive, national consumption tax that is simple, fair and ready to implement. It fully funds the federal government, including Social Security and Medicare, while stimulating the economy and generating desperately needed jobs at an unprecedented level!

The American Revolutionary War began because of colonists who were fed up with Britain’s increasing tyranny and taxation. Having had enough, they drew a line in the sand and declared  “no more taxation without representation”.

When a nation’s elected officials use government agencies for partisan political gain, suppress free political speech and target individual citizens for punitive action, that nation has effectively slid into taxation without representation.

Where is your line in the sand? When do you tell your elected representative, I’ve had enough, I want simple and transparent taxation without interference by special interests and a government that does not engage in punitive, partisan manipulation?

Finally, congratulations to Congressman Chris Stewart (UT-2) for becoming the 74^th co-sponsor of HR 25! Please call Rep. Stewart and welcome him to the FairTax family.

EDITORS NOTE: The feature image is by Elvert Barnes from Hyattsville MD, USA. The photographer does not in any way endorse the author or the positions taken in this column. The image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.