Senate Bill 1813: Owe Taxes? Your Passport and Travel is Denied.

Run_to_da_hills

Efforts to pass a bill that would allow the IRS to deny travel rights to U.S. citizens who the feds merely claim owe $50,000 or more in delinquent taxes represents a de facto move to revoke the citizenship of Americans without due process and in complete violation of the Constitution.

The amendment, Section 40304, was written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and would authorize the State Department to revoke, deny or limit passports for anyone the Internal Revenue Service certifies as having “a seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000.”

Whatever happened to the right of freedom in America? This is reminiscent of old Soviet Russia.

America is seriously heading down the slippery slope.

http://www.thedailyeconomist.com/2012/03/bill-in-congress-could-suspend-your.html

Manic Moran

It doesn't revoke citizenship, but does seem to restrain a person's right to travel, so I don't see it passing Constitutional muster in the description you provide.

RichieC

If you have personal debt they come out and take your house.

tstevens

I was wondering what Thomas Jefferson would think about senate bill 1813 with the attached amendment giving new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports.
Thomas Jefferson Said
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

Experience has shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows us that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other.

I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

In matters of style, swim with the current; In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Most bad government has grown out of too much government.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.

The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.

The Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

There is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose.

Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

Upon the altar of God I pledge eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

One man with courage is a majority.

Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today.
(yes,all the above are Thomas Jefferson quotes)

After reading his quotes it is easy to see that Thomas Jefferson one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence would have opposed the attached amendment in senate 1813 giving new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports. This bill 1813 has already passed the senate. If you oppose the bill and the attached amendment, it is very important that you contact your representatives to voice your opposition and instruct them to oppose senate bill 1813 and remove the amendment giving new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports removed. It is very easy to contact your representatives by email, here is the link. https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Thomas Jefferson would not just complain he would do everything possible to make sure senate bill 1813 and the attached amendment giving the IRS new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports from becoming law.

Brian?

I don't see how it's any different from sending people to prison for tax evasion.

In fact it's a good bot milder.

Brian?

I don't see how it's any different from sending people to prison for tax evasion.

In fact it's a good bit milder.

Overheal

Sending people to prison involves a due process through the justic system, you have to press charges, have the person arrested, have them convicted, etc.

Under the bill as I understand from the OP there wouldnt be any of that, just Heyyou Owe money > Disrupt somone's life > Oh wait nvm enjoy your flight > No IRS repurcussions..

Plus I'm not sure but it might violate a UN Human Right about freedom of travel.

tstevens

"The greatest [calamity] which could befall [us would be] submission to a government of unlimited powers."
Thomas Jefferson

“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”
Thomas Jefferson

"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
James Madison

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow."
James Madison

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."
Patrick Henry

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
Thomas Jefferson

An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.
Daniel Webster

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
George Washington

The problem is always the same. Inaction of the people is the government politicians best defense to get everything they want. Inaction keeps bad politicians in office. Inaction give mores power to the government. Inaction destroys people rights and limits their freedom. This Bill 1813 will most likely become law because most people just complain, very few people do anything to fix anything in this country. I have begun weekly faxing and writing and emailing my representatives in regards to my opposition to senate bill 1813 and the attached IRS amendment. I am doing everything I can think of to prevent Senate Bill 1813 and the attached amendment giving new power to the IRS to revoke and suspend passports from becoming law. Everyone needs to do something to make their country better, that means making sure their representatives are not destroying the country. Our forefathers would have died trying to keep America great. Nowadays Americans just sit back and watch the country deteriorate. They let politicians destroy their own country. Inaction is allowing our politicians to destroy our country. Complaining is good but please do something useful to prevent the senate bill 1813 and the amendment giving the IRS new powers to revoke passports from becoming law.

Manic Moran

Plus I'm not sure but it might violate a UN Human Right about freedom of travel.

Unless there's US legislation I don't know about to enact the UN rights, that one is likely irrelevant. US law reigns in the US.

Run_to_da_hills

There's more to this than you think, It looks like this bill could attack the 2nd Amendment. :eek:

If you don't hold a passport in the US you are automatically put on a "no fly list" which makes you a potential domestic terrorist which also suspends your right to bear arms.

You know strong US citizens feel about their 2nd amendment.

http://daisyluther.blogspot.ca/

troposphere

Hard to understand from reading that section of the bill but I think they are talking about hazardous waste special permit