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Internal Revenue Service

Unruly IRS needs scrutiny: Common Ground

Bob Beckel and Cal Thomas
Tea Party protest against the IRS last May in West Palm Beach.

Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot.

CAL: Newly revealed e-mails outline contacts between Lois Lerner, the former head of the Internal Revenue Service's tax exempt office, and the Justice Department last May, discussing the possibility of criminal prosecution of non-profit groups for "lying" when the groups claimed to the IRS that they were not planning political activities and then turned around and made "large visible political expenditures." Even President Obama has denounced the targeting of conservative groups, which were delayed or effectively denied tax exemptions during the 2012 election cycle.

BOB: Targeting any group by the IRS is unacceptable. The IRS is already too powerful with too few checks and balances. It writes the rules that affect every taxpayer's finances; it has its own courts and the power to seize a citizen's assets. No other federal agency has such powers. What we need is an impartial investigation of IRS practices.

CAL: You're right. There is a history of abuse by politicians of the IRS going back at least to the days of Franklin Roosevelt. As RealClearPolitics.com notes, "Industrialist and former Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon came under repeated attacks from the Roosevelt administration during the early 1930s. Elmer Lincoln Irey, head of the criminal division of the Treasury Department's tax enforcement branch … later revealed that he was ordered by Henry Morgenthau, Roosevelt's Treasury secretary, to file trumped-up criminal charges against Mellon."

BOB: Sounds like Richard Nixon.

CAL: I'll get to Nixon in a moment. During the 1950s and continuing into the '60s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his lawyers and associates were repeatedly audited by the IRS. In fact, as RealClearPolitics reports, for decades, during Republican and Democratic administrations, under FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover the FBI had "free rein to access tax returns and other financial information about suspected members of the Communist Party, other 'extremists' and communist sympathizers."

BOB: Speaking of corrupt, Hoover apologists have tried to maintain his crime-busting image for years, but Hoover was really about power over people he disagreed with, like King, and over the elected leaders he was supposed to serve. Hoover should be known less for crime fighting and more for the rumor and inuendo-filled files he kept on politicians as a tool of intimidation.

CAL: In the early 1960s, Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered investigations of the campaign contributions and tax-exempt status of dozens of conservative groups.

BOB: And then there was the most famous violation of all: Richard Nixon.

CAL: Yes, but it was "most famous" because the major news media reported it as if it were new. Nixon's articles of impeachment cited him for "acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause … income tax audits ... to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner." Nixon was not a one-off.

BOB: Before we leave the impression that all the IRS cases against political "tax-exempt" groups are politically motivated, many groups have actually violated the rules restricting the political activities of groups with tax-exempt status. They have no right to break the law.

CAL: One more example. During the Clinton administration, conservative groups, including The Heritage Foundation and National Rifle Association, alleged the IRS audited them as political payback. Paula Jones, who had publicly accused President Clinton of sexual harassment, said her $40,000 income was audited by the IRS.

BOB: "Alleged" is the operable word here. Allegations are not proof. The IRS has, since its creation, been accused of political skullduggery from all sides, some warranted, some politically motivated, or just spin. The reason the IRS has so often been a scapegoat is because of the enormous unchecked power it has to affect our lives.

CAL: I agree completely, Bob. No other government agency is feared more than the IRS. And here I am going to sound like you. Wealthy people and big corporations get tax breaks that average Americans will never see. They get them because they contribute large amounts of money to politicians of both parties. The system invites corruption and, at a minimum, favoritism. Congress needs to take another look at the IRS. I favor its elimination and going with a fair tax or flat tax.

BOB: I lean toward a flat tax, but I completely agree with you that the IRS and the tax code under which they operates needs to be revamped from top to bottom so it can no longer be used by corrupt politicians as a weapon against their opponents. According to the IRS, more than 80% of U.S. taxpayers file and pay their taxes. That is a higher level of compliance than many other industrialized countries. Revelations that the IRS is being used by politicians to target citizens is likely to result in a fast decline in that compliance figure.

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