Yellen Wants Expanded IRS Spying

By: John Semmens

In a Senate hearing, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen vigorously defended the Biden Administration's need for banks to disclose all transactions in accounts of $600 or more, saying “the government's ability to manage the economy would be greatly enhanced by this information. By right, the government is entitled to know how every dollar is earned and spent. Historically, it has been lack of comprehensive data that has held us back.”

”Say you have $600 in your bank account,” Yellen hypothesized. “Maybe this is income that you have not reported to the IRS. By us having all the transactions in bank accounts of $600 or more we can determine whether you owe the government more money and whether you are spending money wisely. Knowing these things will help us determine whether more of your cash assets ought to be transferred to the government.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wy) called this proposed new level of surveillance “an invasion of privacy. We already have employers and financial institutions reporting income earned from work and investments. Why do we need this added intrusion?”

“Income represents only a portion of the total assets held by individuals,” Yellen replied. “People could be hoarding assets that could be put to better use by the government. Part of the President's 'Build Back Better' program is to redeploy assets in a way that will replace the current greed-based distribution with a more socially just equity-based distribution. Building the database to make this possible is a necessary and proper function of government.”