The IRS' indiscretions in profiling audits on the basis of politics has raised some anxiety from people who generally are pretty sanguine about government action. That is because everyone fears the IRS. It is a powerful entity in people's lives and everyone knows it. More, it can be arbitrary and whimsical. If it becomes malicious it is worse. Recently the IRS has been sued by a HIPAA organization because 15 agents removed the medical histories of 10 million people included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data. Many of those records were of California judges. This was done without warrant or subpoena and none of those whose records were taken were under criminal or IRS investigation.
The Independent Payment Advisory Board is the arm of the ACA that controls spending growth. It is generally characterized by its opponents as a "death panel" but this is both an exaggeration and a false target. The problem in all of these plans is cost control. All arbitrary and rigid top-down cost controls decrease availability of the thing or service being controlled. The very nature of cost control in medicine will decrease availability of medical care. The question is what and where. The what and where will be determined by the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
This is a huge responsibility and power. And it is beyond review.
The IRS and the IPAB are powerful, autonomous organizations whose restraint seems to rest on their own sense of propriety and responsibility. The question is why would a free people allow such dangerous, autonomous and threatening organizations to rise up in their midst?
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