David Cay Johnston:
"GOVERNMENT HAS MISHANDLED WE THE PEOPLE AND THE TAX HONESTY MOVEMENT."

On April 5, 2001, a reporter for the New York Times, David Cay Johnston, told a group of leaders of the tax honesty movement that he had informed the IRS that it has mishandled the We The People Foundation and the tax honesty movement because it failed to address the movement's allegations of the fraudulent adoption of the 16th amendment and the illegal operations of the income tax system.

While Mr. Johnston does not give any credit to the allegations being advanced by the tax honesty movement he apparently now recognizes that the IRS should meet in a public forum with the movements leading tax researchers to refute their allegations. 

On April 5, 2001, two members of the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing: "Taxpayer Beware: Schemes, Scams and Fraud." The hearing was conducted by Senator Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Senator Max Baucus (Montana). Senator Frank Murkowski (Alaska) was present for part of the time. The Senators heard from eight witnesses, including IRS Commissioner Rossotti.

During the hearing, the Senators and the witnesses spoke a great deal about the growing number of people who have stopped paying the individual income tax, the growth of the "de-tax industry," i.e., the entrepreneurs who provide assistance to people who want to stop paying the individual income tax, the role the internet is playing on these developments, what can be done to prevent more individuals from dropping out of the income tax system and what can be done get those who have stopped paying to start paying again. For information about the witnesses and a copy of the prepared statements they read to the Senators go to http://www.senate.gov/~finance/hr040501.htm.

Joseph Banister, Bill Benson, Mike Bodine, Larken Rose and Bob Schulz attended the hearing, representing the tax honesty movement. They were not allowed to speak at the hearing -- their requests to testify as witnesses had been denied. Both Bob Schulz and Larken Rose submitted written statements to the Committee with the request that those statements be added to the official record of the hearing. Click here to view the statement by Schulz

Following the Senate Hearing, the representatives of the tax honesty movement held a press conference at which they reasoned that:1) with the help of the internet, legions of people were becoming informed about the serious questions that have been raised about the legal underpinnings of the income tax and, therefore, about the legal authority of the IRS to force the People to file tax returns and to pay the income tax; 2) those legions are also aware of the fact that the government has refused to address those questions which go to the legal authority of the income tax and, indeed, it has failed to respond to all invitations to meet in a public forum to argue against the conclusions of the tax researchers whose works have raised the questions; 3) those legions have concluded that they do not want to pay the income tax any longer because there must be some truth to the allegations of fraud and the illegal operations of the income tax system being advanced by people in the tax honesty movement; 4) having decided to drop out of income tax system, the citizen's next choice is whether to simply stop filing or to use a "security blanket," i.e., to sign up with one of the entrepreneurs in the burgeoning "de-tax industry"; and 5), if the Senate and the IRS were really interested in doing something about the increasing number of dropouts, they should address the questions which have been raised and presented to them about the legal authority of the income tax system.

David Cay Johnston expressed his agreement with this line of reasoning. He then said that he had just informed the Senate and the IRS that they had mishandled the matter by ignoring the We The People Foundation and the tax honesty movement.

The remaining members of the Senate Committee on Finance are: Orrin Hatch (UTAH); Don Nickles (Oklahoma); Phil Gramm (Texas); Trent Lott (Mississippi); James Jeffords (Vermont); Fred Thompson (Tennessee); Olympia Snowe (Maine); Jon Kyl (Arizona); John D. Rockefeller (West Virginia); Tom Daschle (S. Dakota); John Breaux (Louisiana); Kent Conrad (N. Dakota); Bob Graham (Florida); Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico); John Kerry (Massachusetts); Robert Torricelli (New Jersey); Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas).