In an opinion column for Fox News, economist Steve Moore argues that the Internal Revenue Service has overstepped its role by acting as "judge, jury and executioner" in going after Americans who used a legal tax break, rather than leaving such decisions to Congress. He frames this as part of a broader complaint about the complexity of the US tax code, arguing that once lawmakers create incentives to steer taxpayer and business behaviour, the IRS should not be able to retroactively punish people for legitimately using them.

Moore, a self-described flat-tax advocate in the mould of Steve Forbes, says his ideal system would scrap special exemptions altogether in favour of a single low flat rate, which he suggests as 18%, for everyone. Short of that, he contends Congress must formally close any loophole it disapproves of rather than allow the IRS to unilaterally reinterpret and enforce the rules against citizens who followed the law as written, calling on lawmakers to act rather than leaving enforcement to the tax agency.