WE ARE ONE TREE

Warts and All

Hard to figure sometimes...

Before launching into my reaction to the “Gotcha Game” in Washington, I must make clear that I consider the alleged targeting of conservative groups for special scrutiny by I.R.S. officials to be reprehensible... beyond the pale, actually, in these times of economic instability in our country.  Republican congressmen Darrell Issa of San Diego and Jim Jordan of Ohio are appropriately outraged.  I agree with their outrage.  So does the President of the United States agree. A dozen Republican senators, including Orrin Hatch (Utah), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Church Grassley (Iowa), and Rand Paul (Kentucky) also agree with their outrage.  They have sent a letter to I.R.S. Commissioner Shulman saying, “We have received reports and reviewed information from nonprofit civi organizations in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas concerning recent IRS inquiries perceived to be excessive.”  They went on to say, “It is critical that the public have confidence that federal tax compliance efforts are pursued in a fair, even-handed, and transparent manner--without regard to politics of any kind.  To that end, we write today to seek your assurance that this recent string of inquiries has a sound basis in law and is consistent with the IRS’s treatment of tax-exempt organizations across the spectrum.”  I Agree.  The President of the United States agrees. 

Slack-jawed McConnell went on to say to reporters, “We can’t count on the administration to be forthcoming about the details of this scandal because so far they’ve been anything but.”  

When, I wonder, can we count on these and other members of Congress to turn their attention to governance and social justice issues that are obviously impeding the growth of our economy and weakening the social fabric of our country.  Of course, turning the I.R.S. into a political department of government would do great harm to the nation. Former Commissioner, Ron Shulman, under whose term (completed in November 2012) the targeting occurred, was appointed in 2008 by President George W. Bush. He made clear in a hearing last year that the I.R.S. has been and should remain a non-political department.

We all should be appropriately disappointed and distressed that targeting occurred.  People responsible for it should not keep their jobs.  Appropriate amends should be made to aggrieved not-for-profit organizations. We can then hope that members of Congress will finally begin to work together to solve the nation’s problems as diligently as some of them have been working to weaken rather than strengthen the efforts of the duly-elected Obama Administration to lead our country into a bright future.