Sen. Lee: Out of control IRS has to be stopped

Sen. Lee: IRS is a 'runaway, out of control agency'

Concern over IRS role in health care law implementation

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," June 5, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Uh-oh, now this is getting bad. The IRS just putting two staff members on what it's calling administrative leave. Now, they are accused of accepting lavish gifts while attending a taxpayer-funded conference. Both had been working on implementing the president's health care law. So, you got some problems right there.

To Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee on what he makes of this.

Senator.

SEN. MIKE LEE, R-UTAH: It's good to be with you.

CAVUTO: What do you think of this?

LEE: Well, look, it's one more example of the kinds of problems that we have from the world's largest, most powerful and most feared tax collection agency.

This thing is a monster. It's out of control. It's too big, it's too powerful, and it needs to be reined in. This is yet another example of that.

CAVUTO: All right, now, there -- as you know better than most, I mean, the IRS is going to take over the -- the financial administration of some 49 different facets of the health care law.

And if it is -- if it is any sign of things on come, this will not come to pass, because everyone is so angry at the IRS over how it handled these conservative groups. Where is this going?

LEE: Well, this is going in a direction in which the American people are saying, enough is enough. Our government is already telling us where to go to the doctor and how to pay for it.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But what can you do, Senator? At this point, they argue the train -- that is, the Democrats -- the train has left the station. Deal with it. You say what?

LEE: That is nonsense.

The train has left the station, in the sense that they passed this monstrosity three years ago, but it has yet to be fully implemented. And as far as I'm concerned, it's never too late for us to repeal it. It certainly is not too late for us to repeal it months before it is fully implemented. The time to do that is right now.

Now, we don't even have to repeal the whole thing. All we have to do is, we could pass my legislation, my bill that simply says one thing, that Section 1501 of the Affordable Care Act, the individual mandate provision, shall not be construed to authorize the imposition of any tax or as avowed exercise of Congress' power to tax.

We pass that one provision and all of this nightmare goes away. Because unless we can uphold this as a tax, which Congress told us it wasn't a tax when it was passed, then the whole thing goes away, the whole thing collapses under its own weight.

The American people are overwhelmingly against this bill. The American people deserve for this bill to go away. And I'm going to continue to fight until we can get rid of it.

CAVUTO: But if you get rid of the tax -- and you're no slouch at this -- you know, just as you pointed out, that the whole thing goes away because there is no way to fund it. By its own weight, it just collapses.

LEE: Oh, that's right. That's right. That's the whole purpose.

CAVUTO: So, that's your goal, to kill it by taking the taxes away?

(CROSSTALK)

LEE: Yes. Yes.

CAVUTO: OK. All right.

LEE: Especially because we were told, Neil, we were told when they passed this, this is not a tax. In fact, they tried to pass it as a tax.

CAVUTO: Yes.

LEE: And they couldn't get the votes. And so they passed it as a penalty. The Supreme Court then rewrote it, not just once, but twice, in order to save it. And that was wrong. And my legislation would undo that.

This is one of the many reasons why we need to raise this in -- the example that you pointed out today, the fact that the IRS is a runaway, out of control agency that is sucking the lifeblood out of the American people.

We have got to stop this, because we have to stop them from becoming even more powerful than they already are.

CAVUTO: Senator, thank you.

LEE: Thank you.

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