When Barack Obama ran for president he promised to respect the states’ medical marijuana laws. But since taking office Obama has been steadily using more and more parts of the federal government to wage a war on medical marijuana.

A pattern is clearly forming. The Obama administration is using multiple federal departments to curb or significantly cripple the medical marijuana in the states were it was legalized by the voters. This recent move is not only another direct violation of Obama’s campaign promise to respect state’s medical marijuana laws, but the Obama administration’s is now more aggressively anti-medical marijuana than even the George W. Bush’ administration ever was.

The IRS has ruled that Harborside Health Center, one of California’s largest medical marijuana dispensaries, owes $2.5 million in taxes, because it took ordinary business deductions when Congress said such facilities can’t. Such a large tax bill could potentially force Harborside out of business.

It takes the offer of amnesty to get rich people to reveal their offshore bank accounts. Finally, after years of neglect, the IRS has actually bothered to look into all this. But they had to assure the oligarchs that they wouldn’t be prosecuted for tax evasion, of course.

We now have a CBO report on Harry Reid’s plan, and what once again sticks out is the extreme similarities with John Boehner’s. Remember that the Boehner plan had discretionary spending caps, a “Super Congress” committee to recommend deficit reduction, spending on program integrity for several programs, increases in Pell grants offset by student loan changes, and other budget process changes

Because we could all use a bit of good news:

– The local Chambers of Commerce agree with Minnesota’s most powerful functioning adult, Governor Mark Dayton, and a majority of Minnesotans that revenue increases, particularly tax increases, must be part of any state budget compromise. This puts them squarely at odds with the hyperactive frat-boy Republicans running the Minnesota state legislature. Can the state Republicans live solely off the support of out-of-state far-right Koch front groups like ALEC? I wouldn’t bet on it, especially with the next news item:

– The IRS is telling big donors to political campaigns that their donations could be subject to gift taxes, something that might put a cramp in the notoriously tax-averse Koch brothers’ style.

I agree that any serious deficit reduction plan should include an increase to the IRS budget. But there’s a way to get to this level of revenue without hoping that every tax cheat gets caught, and it’s pretty simple: let the Bush tax cuts expire.

Another step towards smaller, less intrusive government, courtesy of the libertarian-minded teabagger-dominated House majority: Internal Revenue Service agents will be required to determine whether your abortion was paid for with tax dollars. Even more horrifying, income tax return filing forms may need to ask if you’d had an abortion and how you paid for it.

The incredibly rich aren’t like you and me, they don’t need to worry about breaking the law. . . because the I.R.S. is now handing out amnesty like candy.

Around 11am et, the Senate will begin a complicated series of votes on the small business bill. What’s their deal? They actually have to do with some reporting requirements passed in the Affordable Care Act. As a pay-for in the bill, the ACA mandated 1099 reporting for all businesses on certain transactions over $600. The idea here is that companies routinely don’t report such purchases, and summarily don’t pay taxes on them. So basically, the amendment from Johanns eliminates this requirement, and allows businesses to freely evade taxes again. The Nelson amendment would exempt small businesses with less than 25 workers from the requirement, and raise the threshold on transactions to $5,000.