Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) said late Friday that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should be prevented from implementing any portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), citing the recent controversy over its targeting of conservative groups.

“Right now, nobody trusts the IRS to do what they’re doing currently, and let alone the job that they’ve been assigned through the ACA, through the president’s health care law, to enforce that law,” Price told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren in an interview.

{mosads}Price has introduced legislation, called the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act, that would bar the IRS from enforcing or implementing any part of the healthcare law. 

The Georgia Republican said the public has grown distrustful of the IRS after it came to light that the federal tax agency had targeted conservative groups filing for tax-exempt status. Price alleged that the IRS could unfairly target conservative groups when overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

“They targeted conservative groups. They targeted folks that were not politically consistent with what this administration wanted or big government wants,” Price said. “What’s to keep them from targeting conservative groups or individuals to see whether or not they’re due penalties or interest rates on what kind of health coverage they have or don’t have? That’s the concern that all of us have.”

Price said the majority of the public does not want the IRS to know personal information about their healthcare coverage and decisions, arguing that it takes an overreaching regulatory approach to its work.

“It’s a culture that says the government knows best and government has the right to know everything about you. And in fact, it can target individuals or donors or groups of individuals,” he said. “That’s what’s wrong.”