BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID

Every year as tax-time edges nearer to my checkbook, I am confronted with fears. Not fear that I may have paid too much or too little, both of which are a common reality. In the grand labyrinth of our tax code, has anyone ever paid in exactly what they owe?

No, this gut-turning dread comes from a fear of my government. Yes, "We the People" fear Washington. Fear that one day men in black suits driving black SUVs, bearing IRS badges will show up at my door. When the Internal Revenue Service is involved, the rule is "guilty until proven innocent."

Until now, that dread has been seasonal: tax-time. But times, they are a changin'.

With the IRS assuming enforcement of health care, and hiring tens of thousands of agents with the mandate of "health care or else," that gnawing little voice in the back of my head will speak to me—and you—all year long, year after year. Every time you go through the rigamarole of signing up for health insurance, use your flex account (if the benevolent government lets you keep one), each time you visit the doctor, need a prescription, or have to show your shiny new government-issue heath care card, there will be that momentary, "What if it doesn't work this time?" moment. "What if I'm turned down?" "What if someone didn't file the right paperwork in triplicate and the computer says I don't deserve this treatment?"

I can't wait for that moment when I actually say, "Gee, I remember when I only had to deal with the IRS once a year. Boy those were the days!"

Now there is change you can believe in.

THERE'S NO NEED TO FEAR - GOVERNMENT IS HERE!

As a boy I fondly remember the original Underdog cartoon and the canine's heroic catch phrase, "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here."

I wish we had a hero now, you know, the kind that swoops in to thwart injustice, to combat the oppression of every common citizen and bag the bad buy?

Sadly, no hero is on the horizon and there is every reason to fear. And the unbelievable source of that trepidation is the government. Consider this news on today's Politico:

". . the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty . . ." Read the full story here.

The reliable watchdog media has not had much to say about it but according to the HR 3200 Health Care Act of 2009 section 401(b) (at pp. 175-176), enforcement of our brave new healthcare system will be the compassionate, empathetic, and always kind Internal Revenue Service. Now that's change I can believe in.

If I were a sarcastic person, I would be questioning how this is "by the people, for the people and of the people." If feels more like "to the people." (Okay, maybe I am a little sacrastic.)

Every day I fear Washington more and more and with good political reason. Our republic seems intent on punishing me for having been born, for being a law-abiding tax-payer, for the errors of a century ago, and to hold me responsible for all the ills of the earth. This is not social justice. This is not the hope we were promised. This is not change I can believe in.

This is retribution. It is lawlessness. It is evil.