The IRS Scandal, Day 752

Wall Street Journal op-ed:  Get the IRS Out of the Speech-Police Business, by Scott Blackburn (Center for Competitive Politics): 

In May 2013, an inspector general’s report detailed the politically motivated targeting of nonprofit groups by the IRS for harassment. Two years later, despite continuing Republican outrage and Democratic complaints about Republican anger, the agency continues to stick its nose where it does not belong.

Some agency defenders have claimed that nothing was amiss in the IRS harassing hundreds of conservative and tea party groups. Since the agency also went after a few liberal groups, what’s the problem? The problem is that Americans deserve better than equal harassment under the law.

The job of the IRS should be to collect taxes, fairly and efficiently. Since the income tax was enacted in 1913, however, the IRS has appropriated to itself—sometimes on its own, sometimes with congressional blessing—the right to make political judgments about groups of citizens. That is the central failure revealed by this scandal.

The solution is to get the agency out of the business of policing political speech. ...

The IRS ... should not decide whether an organization is a political committee or a social-welfare group. As National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson advised Congress in 2013, that decision should be made by the FEC. This agency is set up to assure that neither major political party can use the determination of the organization’s status as a weapon against political opponents.

It is a bad idea to have a tax-collection agency monitoring the political activities of tax-exempt groups. Worse still that it would do so without any expertise. And silly when the job is already done by another agency.

The treatment of tea party groups is not the first time that the IRS has been used as a political cudgel to beat some organizations into silent submission. But this has been one of the most systematic efforts to do so. If we want to ensure that such abuse does not happen again, we must, and rather easily can, take the agency out of the speech-police business.

• The IRS Scandal, Day 751 (May 30, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 750 (May 29, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 749 (May 28, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 748 (May 27, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 747 (May 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 746 (May 25, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 745 (May 24, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 744 (May 23, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 743 (May 22, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 742 (May 21, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 741 (May 20, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 740 (May 19, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 739 (May 18, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 738 (May 17, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 737 (May 16, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 736 (May 15, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 735 (May 14, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 734 (May 13, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 733 (May 12, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 732 (May 11, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 731 (May 10, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Two Years And Counting (May 9, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 729 (May 8, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 728 (May 7, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 727 (May 6, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 726 (May 5, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 725 (May 4, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 724 (May 3, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 723 (May 2, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 722 (May 1, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 721 (Apr. 30, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 720 (Apr. 29, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 719 (Apr. 28, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 718 (Apr. 27, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 717 (Apr. 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 716 (Apr. 25, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 715 (Apr. 24, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 714 (Apr. 23, 2015)
• 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)