by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.
Author's program note. Let's be clear
about something right from the start: the current scandal at the
Internal Revenue Service is by no means the worst the agency has
endured... yet at any rate. The IRS has a scrapbook full of more
abashing moments and grim memories of things they shouldn't have
done... and got caught red-handed doing.
Item: In the1930s President Franklin
Roosevelt used the IRS against a grab bag of political opponents,
including mega-publisher William Randolph Hearst (think "Citizen
Kane"), Louisiana Governor Huey Long, and controversial radio
priest Charles Coughlin.
Item: In the 1940s and 1950s corruption
and bribery were rife. Hundreds of (not so) shame-faced employees
were dismissed, while President Harry Truman ordered a major
reorganization. Employees were put under civil service guidelines to
curb political influence.
Item: During the administration of
President John Kennedy, the IRS created an "Ideological
Organizations Audit Project" that investigated conservative
groups and challenged their tax-exempt status. The (apple-polishing)
IRS started the project after Kennedy complained during a news
conference about right-wing groups getting tax-exempt status. Targets
included the American Enterprise Institute and Christian
Anti-Communist Crusade.
Item: In the 1960s and 70s the Nixon
administration created an IRS unit called the Special Services Staff,
or SSS to target activists and political dissidents. The White House
drafted the notorious "enemies list" of political
opponents to be targeted for IRS audits. Here, however, common sense
(the most limited of commodities in the capital) intervened in the
person of Treasury Secretary Donald Alexander who said he wouldn't
audit Nixon's political enemies and ordered the SSS dissolved.
Then there's the current scandal which
apparently started in the IRS' Cincinnati regional office. There
someone had the bright idea of making it difficult, if not
impossible, for conservative groups to get tax-exempt status. It
could easily be done with computerized key-word searches, including
overtly ideological searches for applicants seeking to "make
America a better place to live" or "criticize how the
country is being run". Other key search words and phrases
included "Tea Party" and "Patriots" .
Once started the culprits (who of
course regarded themselves as the real patriots, the true-blue
Americans) focused on groups "involved in limiting/expanding
Government" and "educating on the Constitution and Bill of
Rights."
So, let's review what was going on...
Some hot shot (as yet unidentified,
although in due course that'll come out in the wash) decided
conservative Americans were anathema and needed to be reined in. That
person recruited his best IRS buddies (the ones believing
conservatives to be menaces needing curtailment and chastisement for
their wrong-headed views). And they merrily started using their
access to sensitive information to thwart the entirely legal
activities of people who were entirely within their constitutional
rights, a sobering fact which seems to have had no influence upon the
nimble perpetrators who used their jobs to sabotage.
Cui bono?
To whose benefit were these
shenanigans? The report by the Treasury inspector general for tax
administration (released May 14, 2013) offered new, highly suggestive
details.
Of the 296 applications for tax-exempt
status reviewed by the inspector general, 108 were approved, 28 were
withdrawn by the applicants (some perhaps because of excessive IRS
requests for sensitive organizational details), and 160 were still
open, some pending for up to 1,138 days. This necessitates a look at
the dates and a worrying scenario.
A "sensitive case report" on
Tea Party targeting was sent from Cincinnati to Lois Lerner, the head
of the IRS' division for tax-exempt organizations, and to another
Washington official (as yet unnamed) on April 19, 2010. This suggests
the illegal activities began far earlier than otherwise known,
perhaps as early as mid-2009.
Now, add 1,138 days to, say, July 4,
2009 and you might easily draw the conclusion that certain person or
persons involved meant to hurt the conservatives (while helping their
competitors) until well past the 2012 presidential election, thereby
materially assisting in the re-election of the prime beneficiary, The
Honorable Barrack Obama.
What would, of course, strengthen this
case would be knowing which organizations were so thwarted... and
whether theirs was a conservative slant. That, too, should come out
in the wash. It's sure to be a busy laundramat. Representative Dave
Camp will see to that.
Criminal or merely inept, incompetent
and "obnoxious"?
I'm guessing that Camp is going around
his office whistling a happy tune. If so, it's no wonder. In matters
such as this, there are always (sometimes hidden) winners and losers.
The president and a whole lot of senior IRS officials are taking it
on the chin right now as they posture at their "grin-and- bear
it" best. They are clear losers. Dave Camp, by contrast, must be
in hog heaven.
Camp, you see, is chairman of one of
the oldest and most powerful committees of the House of
Representative, Ways and Means. An 11-term veteran, a handsome,
toothy Michigander from Midland, his sprawling district meanders
across fifteen counties of mid- and northern Michigan, the very
heart of the Great Republic. Camp is a popular figure back home,
customarily winning in excess of 60 percent of the vote.
For good behavior and exemplary party
loyalty, Camp was able to move up, join the GOP House leadership team
and as Ways and Means chair deal with the crucial bread-and-butter
issues that are so important to average Americans, tax policy, tariff
and trade laws, Medicare, Social Security, welfare and unemployment
programs.
Camp is the guy who'll be presiding
over House hearings on this matter... His task is plain: to grill
every senior IRS official, then even more senior people in the
Treasury Department.
Heads have, of course, already begun to
fall on this matter, Camp will ensure there are others. President
Obama moved fast to get rid of Steven Miller, acting IRS commissioner
and a lesser administrator.
It is only the beginning.
The President's objective is to get
through this mess as quickly as possible. He wants us to believe the
action was of short duration involving minimum people and that he can
clear it all up, including apologizing to irate conservatives who are
wailing here, there and everywhere, "See, we told you so."
Chairman Camp hopes he won't have to
buy ex-commissioner Miller's proposition that it all happened because
the IRS was overwhelmed by new applications after the Supreme Court
ruled in the 2010 Citizens United case which greatly expanded the
ability of corporations, unions and other organizations to
participate in election spending. Miller wants America to believe the
IRS is a good guy, dim, muddled but well meaning, and that "Dude,
it won't happen again.
Of course Camp wants the opposite of
all this; every subpoena he authorizes, every criminal charge made is
a thrill for this man who probably went home May 17, 2013 (the first
day of hearings) to find his wife and three kids holding crudely made
"Camp for President" posters.
There is, however, one more secret
loser in the proceedings... and that's Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin,
Mitt Romney's 2012 vice presidential selection. He, too, is on Ways
and Means. He's got the presidential bug and cannot afford to let
Camp outmaneuver him. He'll be working hard to ensure he doesn't.
Camp should check for trip wires and banana peels artfully positioned
for maximum effect...
Meanwhile, GOP stalwarts of every kind
are sending out unbelievable numbers of email, direct mail, and
automated phone messages, every one alerting the good people of
America, the conservative, God-fearing people to send in a few
bucks... and so the stupid idea of a cell of left-leaning
knuckleheads in Cincinnati is turned into the mother's milk of
politics, cash. Thus is one man's scandal turned into another man's
success and this rapt commentator kept happily at his work.
Envoi.
Of all our recent presidents probably
the first president George Bush '41 understood nonprofit
organizations best... for he genuinely believes in their necessary
mission of improving the Great Republic. Thus it was no surprise to
hear his encomium on these absolutely essential organizations of
every kind.
It was written by crack speech writer
Peggy Noonan and delivered in his acceptance speech for the 1988
Republican presidential nomination. It came to be called the
"Thousand points of light" speech:
"I have spoken of a thousand
points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread
like stars throughout the Nation, doing good."
For Bush this wasn't just rhetoric. It
was a core of his belief and he showed as much in 1990 when he
spearheaded the creation of the Points of Light Foundation, the goal
of which was to promote private, non-governmental, tax-exempt
solutions to social issues.
Thus, for the music to accompany this
article I have selected "Point of Light,"a tune written by
Don Schlitz and Thom Schuyler. It was recorded by Randy Travis and is
available in any search engine.
It isn't a very good song; it doesn't
tug at your heart, though it should. Even so, it's worth listening
to: "All it takes is a point of light/A ray of hope in the
darkest night/If you see what's wrong and you try to make it
right/You will be a point of light." But, remember, if your
application goes to the IRS in Cincinnati, you might have to wait a
while...
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is
the author of 15 print books, 3 ebooks, and over one thousand
articles on a variety of timely topics. Republished with author's
permission by Vaurn James http://SuccessRoute.biz.
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