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Published January 26, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "Your World," April 16, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Meanwhile, is the IRS now at it again? The agency going after Ron Paul's group Campaign for Liberty, demanding that -- its list of donors. It wants the whole list.
The group is fighting it, and now the IRS is fining them over it. This is kind of like tugging on Superman's cape. Ron Paul is having none of it.
Congressman, what do you make of this, and what are they doing?
RON PAUL, R-FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: Well, they're after us. They want money from us.
They fined us almost $13,000, with daily penalties if we don't cough it up. But they have done this before. They did this two years ago, and we presented the case and some legal cases where we don't have to do it, although, technically, there is a regulation that says this.
But the NAACP fought this way back in '58, and it was ruled by the Supreme Court you don't have to turn over names for privacy reasons. And they asked us to do that two years ago. We didn't do it. They accepted our letter.
But they're back at it again. They're insisting that we do this, and turn over the list, and threaten us with these high fines. And, you know, it doesn't -- it isn't the kind of thing that I am going to enjoy doing, and I'm going to do my very best to avoid it.
CAVUTO: Do they know, by the way, Congressman, that this was your group?
PAUL: Oh, I doubt it. They don't keep up with all that political stuff.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: I don't know. I don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: We did try to reach the IRS. They did give us a statement, Congressman.
I'm quoting here: "Federal law prohibits the IRS from discussing or commenting on any particular taxpayer situation or case."
So... PAUL: Yes.
CAVUTO: ... they didn't comment.
PAUL: No, my guess is that the IRS has been around a long time and it's been politicized, just as our FBI and other agencies of government, they have been politicized.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: But isn't this the same thing that happened, Congressman, with the targeting of conservatives in the first place with all of these groups? And wasn't that the one thing they were investigating? And now, all of a sudden, it would appear far from, you know, humbled, they're going full-throttle doing it.
PAUL: Although -- although the -- the abuse has been bipartisan, in recent years, it's been -- it's the party in power. And I think you remember who's in power right now. And it's been the most abuse I have ever seen or heard of and abuse of conservative groups.
So...
CAVUTO: Well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?
PAUL: Well, right now we have the attorneys and the accountants doing the routine things of writing and making our case.
Well, I mean, the easiest, nicest thing that would be happening is they would accept our arguments, like they did two years ago. But the fact that this is the second go-round -- but they didn't fine us last year. They backed off when we listed the law -- the legal arguments against this, so the big then now is, are they going to treat it the same way as they did before?
Or are they going to come down hard on us and expect us to pay a lot of money in fines? I mean, that would -- that would, of course, be devastating. But we also strongly believe in the privacy issue. And it's been proven by the Supreme Court that you don't have to do it. So we have the law and we have the morality on our side. We have the people on our side. We just have to do our very best to try to curtail this runaway power.
CAVUTO: All right, well, I don't want to be cynical. I don't want to be cynical, Congressman. Do you think any of this might have a thing or two to do with your son possibly running for president?
PAUL: Well, I guess -- I guess almost anything is possible in government, because, you know, he may get a couple of benefits by him being my son. But he also has some disadvantages, too.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Yes, there's some baggage now.
PAUL: So they might -- they might try to do that, which would be obviously very unfair.
But, you know, I give the American people the benefit of the doubt. I think -- and I'm hoping -- that they're smart to see through this. More and more people now are seeing through this. It used to be that anything the government told us, everybody believed it would be the case.
CAVUTO: All right.
PAUL: But now they question everything on foreign policy, on the economics, statistics, everything. And I think that's very, very healthy that the people question this.
CAVUTO: OK.
Ron Paul, thank you. Keep us posted. Always good having you.
PAUL: OK. Thank you.
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