WaPo and WSJ Agree: IRS Targeting of Conservatives Is Appalling
Paul L. Caron
Taxprof.typepad.com
May 11, 2013
Following up on yesterday’s post, IRS Admits to Targeting Conservative Groups in 2012 Election:
Washington Post editorial, Playing Politics With Tax Records:
A bedrock principle of U.S. democracy is that the coercive powers of government are never used for partisan purpose. The law is blind to political viewpoint, and so are its enforcers, most especially the FBI and the IRS. Any violation of this principle threatens the trust and the voluntary cooperation of citizens upon which this democracy depends.
So it was appalling to learn Friday that the IRS had improperly targeted conservative groups for scrutiny. It was almost as disturbing that President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have not personally apologized to the American people and promised a full investigation.
“Mistakes were made,” the agency said in a statement. IRS official Lois Lerner explained that staffers used a “shortcut” to sort through a large number of applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status, highlighting organizations with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names. The IRS insisted emphatically that partisanship had nothing to do with it. However, it seems that groups with “progressive” in their titles did not receive the same scrutiny.If it was not partisanship, was it incompetence? Stupidity, on a breathtaking scale? At this point, the IRS has lost any standing to determine and report on what exactly happened. Certainly Congress will investigate, as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised. Mr. Obama also should guarantee an unimpeachably independent inquiry.
Wall Street Journal editorial, The IRS Targets Conservatives:
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean the IRS isn’t out to get you. We only wish that were a joke. On Friday, an IRS official disclosed for the first time, and by way of apologizing, that the agency that wields the taxing power of the federal government had targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 election season. Apology or not, that can’t be the end of the matter.
The stunning admission didn’t emerge in an official statement by a senior official at the Treasury Department, which supervises the IRS. Instead, IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner disclosed it on Friday in response to a question from the audience at a meeting of American Bar Association tax lawyers in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Lerner acknowledged that the agency had flagged groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” to have their tax returns inspected, presumably with an eye on the legality of their tax exemption. Ms. Lerner called this “inappropriate,” which it certainly was, and she said it wasn’t done “out of any political bias,” which is hard to believe. If there was no political bias, why were only conservative groups targeted? White House spokesman Jay Carney also called the IRS actions “inappropriate” on Friday, which makes that the word of the day.
The Rest…HERE
