The IRS Scandal, Day 714

Forbes, Before IRS Targeting, Lois Lerner Targeted At Federal Election Commission, by Robert W. Wood:

The IRS audits, sends bills, imposes penalties, files liens and levies. Yet incredibly, most of the money the IRS collects is self-assessed. We all fill out tax returns and voluntarily send in money. How much we believe in the system is critical to making it work. Sure, part of the reason we comply is our fear that we’ll be viewed as willful risking jail if we don’t. But there may be a correlation between how much people cheat and their faith that the tax system is impartial. That’s one reason the state of the IRS is so terribly important.

It is hard to believe that the IRS scandal is on day 711. More than two years on, we know that Lois Lerner got a pass on prosecution. She even got nice bonuses. And it seems clear that nothing more will happen. Democrats say that is as it should be, since as President Obama remarked that there is not even a smidgen of corruption at the IRS. But Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam (R-IL) spoke in support of Congressman Jim Renacci’s (R-OH) Prevent Targeting at the IRS Act, which passed unanimously along with several other measures to rein in the IRS. Rep. Roskam called the targeting insidious and poisonous. ...

There is arguably no part of the government more important than our tax system. Our country cannot exist without it. Our tax code and how we administer it could be improved. Yet it is still a system with integrity, one that is administered mostly on the honor system. IRS employees deserve better than the black eye they are getting over this mess. American taxpayers deserve better too.

• The IRS Scandal, Day 713 (Apr. 22, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 712 (Apr. 21, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 711 (Apr. 20, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 710 (Apr. 19, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 709 (Apr. 18, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 708 (Apr. 17, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 707 (Apr. 16, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 706 (Apr. 15, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 705 (Apr. 14, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 704 (Apr. 13, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 703 (Apr. 12, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 702 (Apr. 11, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 701 (Apr. 10, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)