SALON

Monday, Jul 11, 2011 4:25 PM UTC

Michele Bachmann the tax collector versus Ron Paul fans

The surging 2012 star's IRS history does not endear her to supporters of Ron Paul

By

Topics: Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., 2012 Elections, Libertarianism, Ron Paul, Taxes, Tea Parties, War Room,

Michele Bachmann the tax collector versus Ron Paul fansMichele Bachmann

The Wall Street Journal picks up today on a bit of Michele Bachmann opposition research that various Ron Paul-supporting Internet commenters have been trying to publicize for months: The ascendant queen of the Tea Partyers was once a… tax collector. For the IRS.

Unlike her tale of being a Carter-supporting Democrat until she discovered Gore Vidal’s disrespect for our Founders (or, as is more likely the case, until she became an antiabortion activist), Bachmann’s IRS job isn’t part of her grand conversion narrative. She doesn’t hide it, but she does describe her old gig with fancy government bureaucrat talk: She was a “federal tax litigation attorney,” she says. Her four years at the IRS are also the only job she’s ever held outside of elected office.

Here’s Bachmann’s spin on the job: God, through her husband, told her to persecute delinquent taxpayers.

“‘Tax law? I hate taxes. Why should I go do something like that?’ ” Ms. Bachmann said in 2006 remarks at the Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, Minn., recounting a conversation she had with her husband. “But, by faith, I was going to be faithful to what God was calling me to do through my husband, and I finished that course of study.”

In stump speeches and interviews, Ms. Bachmann said her tax work helped lead her to the conclusion that the U.S. should “deep-six” the tax code and scrap taxes on inheritance and capital gains, stances that have made her a tea-party favorite.

There are publicly available documents from only one case Bachmann worked on: a judgment against a resident of the White Earth Reservation who believed that the federal government’s treaty with the Chippewa Indians shielded part of his income from taxation. (Unlike most Tea Party folks and all “sovereign citizens,” this guy had a point! But he lost. Thanks to Michele Bachmann.)

The tax collector business has been brought up on the Ron Paul forums by Paul supporters who are clearly irked that “Tea Party” candidates like Bachmann (and former Fed employee Herman Cain) are stealing grassroots attention from their preferred insurgent candidate. (“Bachmann was a tax prosecutor for the IRS – I can’t think of any professional less desirable to the tea party.”)

At the Paul-supporting Economic Policy Journal, Robert Wenzel writes:

But, there is a clear difference between Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann. While Dr. Paul early in his career practiced medicine and delivered thousands of babies.

Michelle Bachmann was a tax lawyer for the IRS and has a post-doctorate degree in Federal Tax Law. She has stated that she represented the IRS in hundreds of cases against American citizens.

That is a clear difference! (The comments on that post are also priceless. “IRS/Federal Reserve: Two NWO people right from the bowels from hell.”)

Former Bush family confidante Doug Wead, now apparently writing at Newsmax, also goes after Bachmann in support of Paul.

Will this be a “thing”? Will it sink Bachmann’s surging candidacy? No, probably not. She is invincible, remember?

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 36 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
245 points246 points | 10 comments
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
235 points236 points | 49 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
184 points185 points | 1 comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
58 points59 points | 8 comments
vote
How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government -- "...much of the U.S. economic security support system consists of subsidies for the affluent in the form of tax breaks, like those for private retirement savings plans such as 401(k)s and private employer-provided health insurance."
42 points43 points | 3 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations