Turn Over Collecting IRS Back Taxes to Private Debt Collectors?

I really can't believe the shit that Republicans in Congress come up with sometimes. The latest really blows my mind.

While the Republican Presidential Candidates are talking about radically modifying the tax code and even eliminating the IRS, the Republicans in Congress have added a provision to the Highway Bill which would requirethe IRS to turn over its back tax collection duties to private debt collectors. You know, those people that call you up at all hours of the day and night, send you threatening mail and email, and, in general, harass you unmercifully when some company decides you owe them money. Since they do so on a contingency basis, they have a considerable interest in extracting anything they can out of you for their cut. Imagine just how excited those people would be to get to collect (and take a cut of) the big sums that some people owe in back taxes.

The private debt collection industry generates the most complaints to the Federal Trade Commission of any industry. Now, as part of the Highway Bill, Congressional Republicans want to sic them on individual Americans, many who are just struggling to get by, thanks to the Great Recession, the hollowing out of the middle class, Income Inequality, and all of the other economic forces making it hard to get by.

And what about all those big corporations that don;t pay any income tax? What about the pharmaceutical companies that do research in the U.S. but then transfer the intellectual property to Ireland so they can book all the profits their instead of here in the U.S.? What about the Silicone Valley tech giants that register their search patents overseas to do the same? The ones that are begging for another one-time exclusion so they can pull all those overseas funds back home tax free. Why aren't the Congressional Republicans sending private debt collectors their way? Why are they so insistent on cracking down on taxpayers?

For that matter, just how far can you trust the Republicans that profess, on one hand, to make things fairer and simpler with their flat taxes and simplified tax codes and IRS abolishment? Could it be that what they really want is to abolish the IRS, a government function (collecting government taxes seems to me like a government function) and replace it with a for profit business? One more case of privatization?

I'm sure the next step is for some Republican to suggest that we privatize the whole Federal Government. Why not? Let's have a for profit (mercenary) military. Let's have a business take over our hydrogen bombs. Let some other company (Marriott?) "optimize" the use of our National Parks. Yield management at Yellowstone!!!

Come on! Some things just aren't meant to be turned over to business. There are some things Government needs to do. Stop with the whole "Government is the problem" kick.