IRS building on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C.. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Light is now shining on the IRS’s practice of slow-rolling applications for tax-exempt status by groups perceived as anti-government, and more specifically, anti-Democrat. In the run-up to the 2012 election, cries of foul are everywhere. Even the President is getting in on the action, as the Wall Street Journal points out this morning, “President Obama fired acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller on Wednesday, two days after claiming it was an “independent” agency. That was certainly a rapid re-education.”
Heads should roll. When our Government uses its bureaucratic powers to single out groups it views as dissenters, it smacks of abuse and perversion of power. Especially when we are talking about a tax authority, which has the undeniably strong powers to garnish wages, seize property and so on. According to early reports from the Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration, the IRS did indeed use its bureaucratic powers to single out groups, “the political cases took the IRS some 574 days on average to process compared to 238 days for other nonprofit applications.” This is unfair and to have it occurring in the run up to a tight Presidential election heightens the cynicism and suspicion of my reaction. Certainly the IRS never took 574 days to tell me that it thinks I owe them more money on my taxes… It will be interesting to watch this continuing investigation. Transparency is needed here, and I’ll be watching closely this process.
It is also interesting to watch the spin machines getting rolling. In particular, I’m now reading editorials seeking to blame groups like the Koch brothers and court decisions like the US Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision. The transparency of the blame shifting is breath-taking. It’s like a child trying to blame the dog for eating all the cookies. Sure, perhaps big spenders on both sides of politics–the Koch brothers or George Soros–need greater restrictions placed on them. Yes, reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom of the USSC in Citizen’s United. And of course, the IRS does need to take reasonable steps to verify that groups seeking tax-free status actually qualify. But none of that justifies the approach the IRS took here.
The IRS abused its power. And as an agent of the executive branch, it’s important to investigate how this occurred and whether others in the executive branch were in on it. It’s that simple. All the other stuff, campaign finance reform and dealing with Citizens United, all that’s work the Congress is and has been welcome to take up for years.
