The IRS had its budget cut in the continuing resolution this year, which marks the fifth year of lower budgets for the agency. The nearly immediate reaction in the press and amongst many liberal groups was that the reduction was outrageous, the cut too much to bear. The outcries have demonstrated how out of touch the commentators are with normal America, that is, the people who live outside of the D.C. bubble.
But the IRS itself was perhaps the most myopic. In response to the IRS Oversight Board 2014 Taxpayer Attitude Survey showing that public satisfaction with the agency has now hit its lowest level ever, Politico reported: “Paul Cherecwich Jr., chairman of the nine-member independent body charged with overseeing the [IRS], said in a statement that relentless budget cuts are partially responsible for the public's waning satisfaction. ‘The Board believes [the falling satisfaction levels] can be directly tied to deep cuts in IRS funding, which have served only to punish honest American taxpayers who must endure long wait times over the IRS toll-free telephone lines and at walk-in centers,’ he said.”
The “Board” apparently does not believe that unresolved—“unresolved” in large part due to unhelpfulness from the IRS—accusations of abuse of power could tarnish its image. No mention that the targeting of certain citizens, most notably conservative groups, might just strike some people as wrong.
Just last week, information from released emails shows that the Department of Justice is more tightly involved in the scandal than previously thought—or admitted. As reported in Forbes, “In November-December 2014, the Inspector General recovers 30,000 backed up Lerner emails. In FOIA litigation, court ordered documents show that the DOJ met with Ms. Lerner in 2010 about conservative groups. The IRS and Inspector General decline to provide documents revealing taxpayer private data, though the White House may have received them.”
Regardless of what happened, or if nothing happened, taxpayers deserve the full story. For a leading oversight official to not even mention that the recent “troubles” at the IRS could be the cause of low public approval might actually be the best display of how out of touch, myopic and out of control the IRS has become. Instead he makes a pitch for more money to support what many view as questionable operations.
There is no “conservative” victory in the IRS budget cut, and no win for taxpayers until we all know that the agency is operating in an appropriate manner. To paraphrase Marc Antony in “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar,” the most unkindest cut comes from those we thought were there working on our behalf. But in this case the IRS delivered the blow—on U.S. citizens.
December 17, 2014