Scary ‘IRS agents’ claims --- Truth comes out about the ‘16,500 thugs coming with their guns’ to jail insurance cheats

Chicago Tribune article "Scary ‘IRS agents’ claims --- Truth comes out about the ‘16,500 thugs coming with their guns’ to jail insurance cheats" (April 8th, 2010) misses the point in attacking Ron Paul's argument concerning IRS agents. Specifically, Representative Paul suggested that if one fails to pay one's taxes individuals with firearms will come to one's door and put one in jail. The Tribune thinks this is in error.

In an interview on the Fox Business Network, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, conjured up this specter of "armed bureaucrats," then, in the spirit of vividness, turned them into "16,500 thugs coming with their guns and putting you in jail if you (don't) follow all the rules."

It's hard to know where to begin unpacking this claim.

First, IRS "bureaucrats" — auditors, agents and other enforcement personnel, are seldom armed.

To Corrections, Paul appears quite correct. While auditors, agents, and other enforcement personnel of the IRS may not be armed, failure to comply with their orders will result in armed law enforcement officers coming to one's door. Taxes come from political power, and political power, as Chairman Mao noted in Chapter 5 of his Little Red Book, grows out of the barrel of a gun. This is a fundamental distinction between government and other institutions, and one that Austrian Economists especially are not hesitant to make.

The Tribune's correction is in need of a correction. Paul is quite correct in what he is stating.