We’re still unraveling the IRS’s prolific crimes.
I mean, those pertaining to its ideological targeting of conservative applicants for non-profit status.
I’m satisfied that the various individuals and organizations suing the IRS or publishing commentaries on this still-unfolding scandal (Day 552 now) will keep on keepin’ on. I’m a little worried, though, about Congress.
Granting that congressional investigators have been reasonably if imperfectly diligent, my hope is that they’ll prove even tougher in the coming session.
Some chairman must step down soon because of the GOP’s term limits on committee chairs; these include Darrell Issa of the Oversight and Reform Committee. TaxProf Blog’s Paul Caron, scandal tracker par excellence, says Issa’s successor should be one who “has done as much as anyone to shine a light on IRS abuse of the President’s philosophical opponents, both in hearings and behind the scenes.”
The man he means is Representative Jim Jordan. Long before we ever heard of pivotal IRS malefactor Lois Lerner, Jordan had been “seeking answers from the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations chief on political targeting allegations.”
Indeed, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer for victims of the IRS, believes that without Jordan there would have been no Treasury investigation to get the ball rolling “and no public admission that, indeed, conservative groups were being subjected to unprecedented scrutiny and mistreatment.” (Plus, see the congressman’s recent press release lamenting a dismissal of charges against the IRS.)
I’m convinced; let’s have Jordan. And let’s pursue this investigation to the bitter end.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Keep Targeting the IRS”
No justice unless and until those who have unintentionally violated Americans’ rights are fined and/or censured and those who intentionally did are jailed.
No justice anytime soon, I’m sorry to say. That’s because most of the media isn’t interested.
Tea Party groups were not on Speaker Boehner’s list of favored constituencies. They never will be, because they represent a threat to his power and influence. For all their carping about spending, most Washington GOP are just as eager to grow government as are the Democrats. Their preferences for spending are different and they might do it a tad more slowly, but they are still looking to grow their own power. Tea Partiers are as much a threat to establishment GOP as they are to Dems. The IRS has already been forgiven. Jordan might put on a good hearing, but I fear it will be form and not substance. A few hours on C‑SPAN3 and then it will be forgotten.