|
Akron
Beacon Journal
No
joke
May 13, 2013
On
Monday, President Obama began to
respond appropriately to revelations that the Internal Revenue Service
targeted
conservative groups to establish whether they were complying with their
tax-exempt status. The president called the IRS actions “outrageous.”
He
promised to hold agency officials accountable. His words followed the
apology
on Friday from Lois Lerner, the head of the agency division that
oversees
tax-exempt organizations.
Now
the White House must follow
through on the president’ s commitment. Already, the inspector general
of the
Treasury Department has launched an investigation. So has the IRS
inspector
general. Both reports are expected soon. The president must respond
fittingly
to the results. Republicans weren’t exaggerating in talking about the
episode
as “despicable” and “absolutely chilling.”
The
president often has proclaimed
his wish to change the archly partisan tone in Washington. Clearly,
Republicans
have resisted the idea. This IRS episode is a self-inflicted wound.
House
Republicans will pursue their own hearings and investigation, and
legitimately
so, deepening the polarization and suspicion.
The
IRS does have an important job
in ensuring that organizations deserve their tax-exempt status. The job
has
become more difficult as the number of groups has expanded rapidly in
recent
years. The 501(c) 4 exemption allows for those primarily promoting
“social
welfare” to engage in political activity. The question becomes: How
much political
activity should the IRS permit?
So
it made sense for the agency,
facing a sharp increase in applications, to consolidate the task in one
office,
seeking to build expertise. Yet the effort went off the track. The New
York
Times obtained a timeline showing that in early 2010, the IRS began
searching
for groups using such terms as “tea party” and “Patriots.” Then, the
search
expanded to, among other things, “criticize how the country is being
run...
Read
the rest of the article at the
Akron
Beacon Journal
|
