VIDEO: Protest Outside of IRS Headquarters in D.C.

[jwplayer config=”pjmedia_main” mediaid=”170690″ width=”590″ height=”360″]

A group of conservative political activists protested the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of tea party organizations outside of the IRS building in Washington, warning that the federal government needs to be “downsized significantly.”

“This demonstrates the immense power that the Internal Revenue Service has over individual Americans and their ability to effectively exercise their First Amendment rights,” Andrew Langer, president of the Institute for Liberty, told PJ Media.

“This is not a left or right, conservative or progressive issue but an issue that impacts all of us for that very reason that anybody can be targeted under this and we should guard against that possibility.”

Lisa Miller of Tea Party WDC called the special treatment of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status a “direct threat” to “every” American’s rights.

“No matter what, the problem is big government,” said Miller.

“You misspeak and you can get audited by the IRS? You can imagine the kind of stress and expense that puts on people.”

While some have compared the IRS scandal to Watergate, which led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation, some protesters dismissed the idea of impeachment.

“I think it would be a significant downgrade on domestic and foreign policy to elevate Joe Biden to the presidency,” said Phil Kerpen, American Commitment president.

Instead, Kerpen said, the lesson to be learned from the IRS scandal is that the government cannot be properly managed at its current size.

“I think the whole talk of impeachment is probably counterproductive. I think we should focus on the facts at hand and we should focus on what I think is the real lesson from this, which is that the government is so big nobody has a clue what’s going on in it,” said Kerpen.

“It can’t be managed and it needs to be downsized significantly, not massively expanded under Obamacare.”

However, Langer told PJ Media that the nature of a meeting between President Obama and National Treasury Employee Union President Colleen Kelley on March 31, 2010, could serve as the basis for impeachment.

“If we come to find out that at this meeting this issue was discussed and the president directed them to engage in this activity then yes, this should certainly be an issue for impeachment,” said Langer.

More: