Excess of Control on Tea Party, Political Storm around the IRS

The Internal Revenue Service investigated 75 conservative groups only because words such as “tea party” and “patriot” appeared in their tax forms. The confession precipitated the IRS into a political storm — the Republican leaders of Congress in Washington are talking about “a violation of civil rights,”* announcing investigations and hearings while the Democratic leaders are not really keen on defending one of the less popular institutions in the country.

For John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, this whole situation is about “one of the biggest mistakes the federal government has ever made.”* The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform led by Californian Darrell Issa announced the summoning of the IRS employees responsible for this predicament to respond to the “irresponsible behavior of the people who put under investigation some Americans citizens only because of their political opinion.”* The problem lies in the fact that the commissioner of the IRS, Douglas Shulman, resigned last November after a four-year mandate and doesn’t have a successor yet. As a consequence, the only people to respond about the investigation targeting the conservative tea party movement will be the employees.

The report on the IRS that will be published next week by the Treasury Inspector General will shed some light about the violations that occurred. The Democratic leaders, however, don’t have any intention to defend the IRS, an institution considered by most of them to be the symbol of excellence when it comes to federal government intrusion in the private lives of its citizens. “Targeting groups based on their political views is not only inappropriate but it is intolerable,” said Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance.

Since the 2010 Congressional election campaigns, the mishmash of tea party groups has been a fundamental element of the Republican coalition, and the investigations aimed against the “patriots” by the IRS raise the suspicion that the Obama administration might have tried to weaken their financing and consequently their capacity to operate. To make matters worse for the IRS, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently accused IRS inspectors of having had access to emails and text messages of citizens without a compulsory warrant. As if that were not enough, on March 1, the IRS was deprived of $689 million in funds following the implementation of the automatic cuts to the government budget plan and at the same time the reduction of the budget.

As an immediate consequence, the role of the IRS, which consists of not only watching over the fiscal system but also the practical implementation of various aspects of the health care reforms enacted by President Barack Obama, has been weakened. And it could be only the beginning. Not even the White House actually defends the IRS: “This is inappropriate and unacceptable behavior,” claimed press secretary Jay Carney, trying to make a distinction between the “bosses” who admitted the error and those who actually made it.

*Editor’s note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.