The story of how the I.R.S, scandal developed reveals, to use a bit of the Congressional committee's favorite phrase, there is no “smoking gun.” When I first learned of the problem, I overreacted. So did others. Examining their overreaction, if they deal with it honestly and call it what it was/is, politicians may lead the country to needed improvements in I.R.S. laws and procedures. If they deal with it honestly, Republicans may get some credit. If they continue to react as if the problem is a new one and/or that it was caused by President Obama, they will lose any credibility they might gain from having alerted the nation to the issue.
The I.R.S. guidelines which organizations follow when applying for and being granted tax exempt status should be reexamined by a bipartisan commission of citizens. Whenever an organization which has been granted I.R.S. 501 (c) (3/4 or 5) status strays from its mission of promoting the common good and serving causes of social justice, its tax exempt status should be withdrawn. All organizations, including Churches and schools, which now enjoy tax exempt status should be reexamined periodically. Obviously, the current I.R.S. organization will have to be reconfigured and the staff must be expanded. The flood of applications for tax exempt status handled by a seriously understaffed Cincinnati office was the basic cause of the problem which many of us, led by eager media, rushed to call “the I.R.S. scandal.” The fix isn’t going to be popular. The change to correct the problem will cost a lot of money and will take a long time, but it is worth doing. Tea Party groups and all other organizations demanding smaller, cheaper government must know they can’t have it both ways. Good government with appropriate leadership and reasonable oversight isn’t cheap.
Obviously, overstaffing government agencies is wasteful and inefficient. Deliberately understaffing is also wasteful and inefficient and has the effect of crippling government. I continue to believe the American system of government is a good plan, perhaps the best in the world when it works the way it is designed to work. In the last decades of the Eighteenth Century when our system was first created, there were flaws in the original design, like condoning and regulating the institution of slavery and granting only white men the right to vote. Periodically the design itself has had to be revised. Re-examination of old laws and amendments should be expected. Traditions and myths are useful and can be good glue to bind pieces of a culture together. However, when traditional ways no longer make sense in a new, enlightened age, and when myths are believed to be narratives of the way things literally were at one time, the people who perpetuate them weaken and perhaps eventually destroy the very institutions they say they are trying to protect.
3 comments:
Wish all those cone heads in DC could read this!
I agree with you about the ugly attitudes we witness in Washington. It
seems like it is "My way or not at all!" Had it been that way in earlier
American expansion, we never would have had a "barn raising" for lack of
agreement on how to do it, much less the proper means of financing it!
We need to approach our problems as Americans first, with party affiliation
as a guide to our compromises. Compromising is too often publicized as
"giving in" or "backing down" when it should be viewed as the means to
getting things accomplished for the benefit of the majority of people.
Agree.....on all three issues....the screamers in Congress are having a field day beating up on the IRS guy who has apologized....bunch of bullies.....I am a bully on occasion that is why I can see it in others.....
Agape'
JB
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