New Powers Give IRS the Ability to Revoke Your Passport

In yet another slash at American liberty, the Senate has passed a bill giving the power to the IRS and the State Department to revoke a US citizen’s passport if it is believed (not proven) that the taxpayer owes more than $50,000 in back taxes.

Bill S. 1813 might as well be named the Passport Confiscation Bill instead of the bill’s current lengthy title “To reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes” also know as the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” or even shorter, “MAP-21″. (Moving ahead for progress? Progress for who?)

Tax Amendments to the Senate-Passed Highway Trust Fund Bill will essentially make border guards of IRS tax collectors as Harry Reid has apparently snuck in the sinister provision allowing denial or revocation of existing passports according to a report from the organization, ‘American Citizens Abroad’ of Geneva Switzerland.

A US citizen generally has the right to have a passport and to travel freely. It’s not clear that the inability to pay his tax bills can be used to deny him this right.

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