I'm not quite as agitated by the IRS scandal (the original one, before the one about extravagant convention spending) as some folks; I even have some sympathy for them.
Imagine having 70,000 applications piled up from organizations seeking 501(c)(4) status and a staff of somewhere between 150 to 200 people to sort through them and make a decision in each case. What does that decision entail? It means deciding which applicants spend 49% of their resources on political activities and which ones spend 51%.
Imagine knowing for a fact that there are groups bent on gaming the system, pretending to be social welfare groups when their only reason for existence is politics, and nothing but politics. I can't even begin to imagine what sort of social welfare organization Karl Rove would head up. Perhaps a program to educate the public about the evils of the socialistic Democrats?
If I was one of those IRS decision makers, I would certainly consider looking first at organizations which have criticism of federal tax policy at their very core. Why not search for groups with Tea Party in their name, when you know that the movement of that name grew directly out of the extreme right wing of the anti-tax Republican party?
Passing this job off to the IRS without giving them the necessary resources is as ridiculous as putting the IRS in the position of having to determine what is and what is not a tax-exempt religion. Hence, that sympathy I mentioned.
No comments:
Post a Comment