Why Everyone Should Care About the IRS Targeting Conservative Groups

May 13th, 2013 by 
PK

"First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."  -Martin Niemöller

Game, set, match... right?  Brevity is the key to good communication; you made your point, here's a reference to Godwin's Law?

Well, if it's true that "The constitution stops where the Internal Revenue Code begins", I think it's worth examining why this is such an egregious violation of public trust.  So, with that in mind, let's dive into why it's so worrying that the IRS can (and will) target based on ideology... no matter where you fall on the political spectrum.

Let's Back Up - What Did the IRS Do?

In a nutshell, the IRS recently issued an apology for unfairly targeting 501(c)(4) organizations which were formed with the words "Tea Party", "Patriot" or "9/12" in their names.  All of those phrases and words are overt or not-so-overt references to the Tea Party movement (generally a conservative movement) which gained prominence before the midterm elections in 2010.  Apparently all of this was directed by a field office in Cincinatti (As I went to press the story is changing... D.C. might have been involved).  Anyway, when the higher-ups got word, they apparently said to knock it off.

Did it stop?  Well, no - it got more sophisticated.  Instead of targeting groups based on words in their titles, they started targeting groups based on their objectives.  The objectives they targeted now were “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform movement” (according to the soon to be released audit).  If you drew a Venn Diagram of groups wanting to limit Government growth and groups with 'Tea Party' in the title?  You'd have a circle.  That's right - instead of knocking it off, they doubled down and made their targeting more sophisticated.

And why issue this apology now, more than 2 years after the policy started and 2 years after authorities at the IRS knew about it?  Well, because of the aforementioned audit.  Once it became obvious what the contents of the audit would be ... well, an apology is better late than never.

The Political Response

Predictably, responses to the scandal have divided based on the source's position on the right/left political spectrum.  From what I can seen, the major argument on the left is that 501(c)(4)s are being abused, so it's too bad this will now hamper enforcement (see an example of the genre below).  It's a nice dodge, but it doesn't excuse the lack of targeting of groups associated with, say, Occupy Wall Street.  On the right?  Well, the IRS is being targeted, but also President Obama.  While IRS related scandals do smack of Nixon, and it's true that Harry Truman established the buck stops at the President's desk - I still think it's premature and unfair.  The President was a little late in the news cycle with his outrage (Monday) at the IRS, but I won't fault him for not commenting on a fluid situation until the weekend clarified things.  Another thing - the director of the IRS at the time, of course, was appointed by former President George Bush (43).  Hopefully (well, it's a weird thing to hope for...) it stops at the field office in Cincinnati, but it'll soon be borne out.

      

PK

PK started DQYDJ in 2009 to research and discuss finance and investing and help answer financial questions. He's expanded DQYDJ to build visualizations, calculators, and interactive tools.

PK lives in New Hampshire with his wife, kids, and dog.

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