ACCOUNTABILITY: New bill would boost penalties on IRS lawbreakers. “In the wake of an admission by an IRS official that conservative groups had been targeted for additional scrutiny, Rep. Michael Turner will introduce legislation Monday that would increase the penalty for singling out ideological organizations —including the possibility of jail time. . . . Turner’s bill would expressly prohibit an IRS employee from discriminating against a group or individual based on protected statuses. It also expressly states that political speech and expression are protected statuses and protect all political speech from being targeted by the IRS — not just that of conservative groups. IRS employees are already prohibited from discriminating in the course of the work, but the highest level of punishment is termination. Under Turner’s law, the penalty would be increased to a fine up to $5,000, five years in prison or both.”

Civil damages and a waiver of official immunity would be nice. But the real solution to abuses of IRS power isn’t to increase penalties, but to give the IRS less power by going to a flat tax or a national sales tax.