House Republicans have introduced separate bills aimed at scaling back the Internal Revenue Service's involvement with implementation of ObamaCare.
Reps. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and Tom Price (R-Ga.) said their bills are needed in the wake of the IRS's confirmation that it applied extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Forbes called that a form of "bullying" by the IRS, and said it's a reason why Congress should approve his bill, which would prohibit the hiring of any new IRS officials to implement ObamaCare.
"Under current law, the authority to implement the president's healthcare tax rests with the very people who used their government positions to act as political operatives working to influence the electoral process," Forbes said. "I'm introducing legislation today to prevent the IRS from being handed their newest bludgeon to target businesses and individuals that do not come in line with their political philosophy or policy positions.
"The IRS would be better to police its own than to police the millions of Americans who believe this healthcare law to be bad for their families and bad for our businesses," he added.Forbes' Prevent IRS Overreach Act, H.R. 1993, would prevent the IRS from hiring what many expect to be thousands of new IRS agents tasked with implementing the law. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said Wednesday that he was working on similar legislation.
The IRS is involved in large part because of the law's requirement that most people buy health insurance, and the possibility of fines for failing to meet this mandate. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the law is constitutional, and that these fines for failing to buy health insurance are allowable when viewed as a tax.
Price introduced his own Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act for the same reason as Forbes — to keep what he said is an intrusive IRS out of the business of regulating healthcare. Price's bill, H.R. 1990, would prohibit the IRS from implementing or enforcing any piece of the law.
"The same agency that just committed an appalling violation of the American people's trust is going to be at the forefront of enforcing the health care law, including the individual mandate which will require every citizen to prove to this agency that they've purchased government-dictated health care coverage," Price said.
"When it comes to an individual's personal health care decisions, no American should be required to answer to the IRS — an agency that just forfeited its claim to a reputation of impartiality," he added. "It has always been an untenable and unacceptable scenario, and we ought to take this common sense step to take the IRS out of healthcare."
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