Outsourcing the IRS - More NeoCon Crap

Here are a couple of fun stories for you to ponder side-by-side. The first is a tale of greed, cronyism, and potential corruption: Basically it's the story of the Bush administration as a whole, but the Republican-led Congress is the enabler and just as culpable.

The I.R.S Outsources Debt Collection To Private Firms

This New York Times article sums it up pretty nicely. Basically the government is privatizing debt collection for back taxes up to $25,000. They are doing this to save money and make the process more efficient without expanding the government. Well, check this out...

The private debt collection program is expected to bring in $1.4 billion over 10 years, with the collection agencies keeping about $330 million of that, or 22 to 24 cents on the dollar.

By hiring more revenue officers, the I.R.S. could collect more than $9 billion each year and spend only $296 million — or about three cents on the dollar — to do so, Charles O. Rossotti, the computer systems entrepreneur who was commissioner from 1997 to 2002, told Congress four years ago.

So let's get this straight, Bush and Congress think it's a good idea to privatize this function in trade for a potential $88.6 Billion in revenue? Under this new system the government gets $1.4 billion and the private debt collectors get around $330 million. Yet it's possible for the government to collect around $90 billion and only spend around $300 million to do it. Hmmm, I'm no economist or math whiz, but if you're the average guy on the street, does this make any sense at all? You know who this makes sense to? - The private debt collection firms which are no doubt major contributors to campaigns, aggressive lobbyists, and generally mean-spirited and a sometimes fraudulent bunch.

That last point leads directly to the next article which is ironic that I found them both within ten minutes of the other from totally separate sites.

Sleazy New Debt Collector Tactics

It may not be your debt, but it could be your problem. Collection agencies are bullying blameless consumers into paying debts they never owed.

So, rather than simply hiring more IRS agents, which is far more profitable according to the experts, they are going to turn to these people??? I wonder if there are any of the original masterminds of the Spanish Inquisition available in frozen storage that we could re-animate and hire to handle our tax collection as well.

Read on...

Lisa Burk isn't Lisa Sterns, but Allied Interstate refused to believe her.

The Minneapolis collection agency repeatedly called Lisa and her husband, Michael, according to a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota attorney general, and demanded that the couple pay a debt owed by one Lisa Sterns. The couple, just as repeatedly, told the collector they didn't know any Lisa Sterns and asked the company to stop calling.

Allied ignored the couple's requests. At one point, the collector insisted that the Burks were lying or, if Lisa Burk were not Lisa Sterns, that she knew Sterns and could tell Allied Interstate where to find her. It took intervention by the attorney general's office for the calls to finally stop.

So some of these debt collection people are kind of bastards anyway from what I'm reading, and now they're basically being deputized by our government. If this isn't potential for fraud and abuse I don't know what is. I would really love it if our government actually did what was in our best interest for once. Seeing millions and billions of dollars slipping through our hands like sand, and falling into the giant sandbox of the bankers, collectors, and financiers that pull the strings in Washington, is just making me insane.

As long as companies like these can directly manipulate our government through dodgy campaign contributions, lobbying, nepotism, and cronyism, then we literally have no say in the process. The people, you and me, are not in control. Technically we're the government's boss. They work for us, though you'd never know it the way they strut around so cocksure and oblivious to our cries. Basically what I'm saying is that you need to examine it all, read as much as you can, don't just take people's word for things. Try to avoid the mainstream media if you can, don't waste your precious time on the local evening news, and please, please vote this November. Remember, we're in charge here.

Stupid Hick Shoots Tame Bear and Other Stories

Well, I don't have a lot of time to write new and original stuff right now, so I'm just going to put links to some interesting things I found.

First off is this story about this stupid hick, Troy Lee Gentry, one half of the Montgomery Gentry country singing duo, who bought a tame black bear, put it in a pen, and killed it with a bow and arrow. Then he edited the tape of him doing it, making it look as if he had 'hunted' it down in the wild and killed it courageously. Douchebags like this deserve the maximum sentence. So here's a big FU to Troy Lee, may he get shot in the stomach with a harpoon, dragged across half a mile of rusty razor blades, doused in kerosene and lemon juice, then be lit on fire until his smoking, charred corpse is as black as his heart.

Finally is a link to an excellent story on the Bin Laden 9/11 tape from five years ago. Check it out for yourself. I don't want to do a disservice to the quality of the story, so read it direct with your eyes wide open. Also be aware that I have a friend who was a Marine sniper, had Osama Bin Laden in the sites of his rifle, and when he asked for the kill order, was denied without explanation. Our government; fear mongers, liars, manipulaters, and haters of freedom...of wait, that's their definition of a terrorist. Hmmm.

Keep 1-800-SUICIDE private

People of all ages, check this out...



The government wants to put up their own service now. Of course they want access to the callers private, confidential information. Hmm, surprise, surprise. They owe this organization previously allocated money, and now they're cutting off funding. So I just had to post this quickly to help inform people.

That old cliched saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it,' definitely applies here. Tell the federal government to keep their hands off this service. It works. It helps people in a completely private way. Don't let them bastardize it when this system that is already in place is effective.