Paul LePage(Photo: AP via Politico)
Governor Paul LePage of Maine is making news for allegedly referring to the IRS as the “new Gestapo” Saturday, after blasting the president’s overhaul of our health care system.
He reportedly said:
This tax will add to the $500 billion in tax increases that are already in Obamacare. Now that Congress can use the taxation power of the federal government to compel behavior or lack thereof, what’s next? More taxes if we don’t drive Toyota Priuses or if we eat too much junk food or maybe even pea soup?
This decision has made America less free. ‘We The People’ have been told there is no choice. You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo – the I.R.S.
Even more disheartening is that reviving the American dream just became nearly impossible to do. We are now a nation in which supports dependency rather than independence. Instead of encouraging self-reliance we are encouraging people to rely on the government. [Emphasis added].
Listen to the entire radio clip here, via Dirigo Blue.
LePage has a history of making inflammatory remarks, saying the NAACP could “kiss his butt” in 2011, and that Barack Obama could “go to hell” in 2010. At Maine’s GOP convention in 2012 he told the unemployed to “get off the couch and get yourself a job,” to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Watch the NAACP comment, below:
Maine’s Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant demanded a full apology for the remarks, saying:
“We’ve come to expect a bunch of nonsense from Gov. LePage, but this is a step too far. There appears now to be no limit to the extreme language he will use to misinform, degrade and insult people. Somebody needs to explain to him that he’s the governor of a state, and not a talk radio host.”
According to the House Ways and Means Committee, the IRS will be adding 16,500 new auditors, agents, and other employees to “investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans.”
But is a “Gestapo” comparison taking it too far?
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