Mishandled IRS Records Hurts U.S. More Than Politics

Not all conspiracy theorists are nuts. Having worked with the government as an auditor, I witnessed misuse of power firsthand. 

 

One question, directed at me by the head of an agency, still resonates more than 24 years later and has taken on a life of its own based on the current problems the IRS is encountering by claiming there was a "No Politics Allowed Policy." In 1989 the question from the agency head was, "What is it going to take for you to give 'us' the audit results 'we' want?"

 

Watching the IRS try to defend itself is troubling if not blatantly fraudulent. The "non-political, non-targeting" defense offered up by outgoing Director Steven Miller just doesn't make it to the laugh track based on my personal experience. Politics always played a role, and it was not always background music. Political connections always were a consideration. It was a fact of life as a government auditor. For the IRS to be claiming or even intimating otherwise is just an outright lie.

 

The troubling new development revolves around the role politics had in determining the speed and validity of what got passed on or what was held up.

 

Islamic requests for special non-tax status were zipped through while other groups were held for years and years. The 501(c) status gives the entity tax-free status whether it is a (3) or (4) designation depending on planned activities.

 

The Islamic requests are the curious part as they were passed through on religious grounds. What the reviewers inside the IRS missed completely is the fact Islam, by its own record, is a combination form of religion and government. In essence, the watchdog group for the U.S. government allowed another government to be established and operate within the borders of the United States.

 

If all the other crimes--sorry IRS, you want the word misjudgments--if all the other misjudgments are disregarded, allowing a foreign government application for "exempt status" to sail through with no more than normal scrutiny is egregious. It undermines the very core of the Constitution.

 

Islamic groups, it must be noted, have the absence of IRS scutiny more than made up for by interest from other agencies like the FBI and Homeland Security, but then that also brings the focus onto information the IRS may have transmitted on about these groups in direct violation of its charter.

 

If the IRS had one thing going for it, beyond the obvious implicit "willing participation" of the general public, it was the fact its record were to be sealed from all other agencies.

 

But, through Miller's testimony, we now know some of the records, vital to following the political trail in holding conservative groups hostage to the approval process, were conveniently "destroyed." Huh? As an auditor I needed all the information the record keepers could give me as to why the audit needed to be done, suspected problem areas and other pertinent particulars. Now the Inspector General's man on the job admits "some records were destroyed so we couldn't move beyond that point in the investigation."

 

The IG also couldn't determine who ordered the records' destruction and Miller offered no insight.

 

The hearing on the case is also a sham. Miller carefully constructed his measured responses, forcing repeat of the same question over and over. Then, in the middle of an answer, the questioner's time had run out and we moved to the next questioner, leaving that question dangling. 

 

After two hours of watching the TV coverage of the Congressional hearing, Miller still had not offered one concrete bit of information.

 

In fairness to Miller, he assumed his current post in November 2012. The questionable activity goes back to at least 2010 so there was no way he could answer for what happened prior to his appointment nor should he have been. What was even more dubious was the IG's assertion it could not make a determination as to when the possibly incriminating records had been destroyed.

 

Geez, Inspector General, you knew there was a date activity on the problem application had been done and an alleged comment submitted. The data had to be removed after that time yet you cannot "make a determination...when...records had been destroyed?" 

 

Targeting an American idealist faction like the Tea Party or Patriot groups smells like the same thing America faced 237 years ago. In case your education is fuzzy, and based on the records of our politically-motivated public school system it will be, the Tea Party and Patriot groups were being targeted by the English crown 237 years ago for 'defiance of the Crown.'

 

Officially Barack Obama does not wear a crown. Unofficially, I suspect the he would like to mobilize the military like King George did with the intent of getting the Tea Party groups' weapon caches before they can be used against him.

 

With scandals stretching from sea to shining sea and using Hillary's question, "what difference does it make now?"

 

"I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson