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November 21, 2004

Congress Wants You...Or Your Tax Return

Josh Marshall has picked up a rather disturbing proviso in the omnibus spending bill passed as Congress tries to straighten out the fiscal 2005 budget. The Istook Amendment would permit the chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committee to access any American's tax returns, regardless of the privacy laws.

The obvious question here is why the Hell any member of Congress should have access to a private citizen's tax return. This is just one more example of the breakdown of the American system: instead of the government existing to serve the people, the people increasingly exist only to serve the government, and it's duly elected representatives. Now it is true that we do still have the power to elect our representatives, but thanks to gerrymandering our choices are increasingly limited as representatives choose who will elect them rather than electors choosing who will represent them.

Apparently Tim Russert got on John McCain about the amendment, and McCain now claims it will be eliminated. That's good news, if true, but it is unlikely to happen unless constituents get on their representatives now to tell them that we're unhappy with this little addition.

This is, by the way, a perfect example of why I would love to impose Constitutional limits on the federal government. It has grown to such disturbing proportions, a large number of people who voted on the bill in question don't know very much about what went into it. The bill is just too big for anyone to keep track of, meaning most representatives vote based on what their party tells them to do. Only by stripping government down to a more restricted level can we hope to have some real control over our government. Not that I'm expecting that to happen.