(I got the tongue in cheek comment Greg!)
On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 11:22 AM, GregfromBoston <[email protected]>wrote: > Who care's about Bovard abd his piece. It's the White House blaming > Bush. Hello! > > > On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 9:42:00 AM UTC-5, MJ wrote: >> >> >> <sigh> >> Bovard's piece mentions: Obama FDR LBJ JFK Nixon Clinton No mention of >> Bush -- I or II -- much less 'blaming'. >> >> Regard$, >> --MJ >> >> "The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the greatest >> liars: the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them >> the truth." -- H.L. Mencken >> >> >> >> At 10:26 AM 5/15/2013, you wrote: >> >> Nah. Just blame Bush. >> >> Right on cue >> >> On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 9:06:28 AM UTC-5, KeithInTampa wrote: >> Good Column. Another Federal Agency that is broken beyond repair, the >> IRS needs to be decimated, depleted and deleted. >> >> >> On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 9:09 AM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: >> "As David Burnham noted in "A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of >> Power" (1990), "In almost every administration since the IRS's inception >> the information and power of the tax agency have been mobilized for >> explicitly political purposes."" >> >> OPINION >> May 14, 2013, 8:18 p.m. ET >> A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting >> One survey found that 75% of IRS respondents felt entitled to deceive >> or lie to Congress. >> By JAMES BOVARD >> >> Many Republicans are enraged over revelations in recent days that the >> Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative nonprofit groups with a >> campaign of audits and harassment. But of all the troubles now dogging the >> Obama administration -- including the Benghazi fiasco and the Justice >> Department's snooping on the Associated Press -- the IRS episode, however >> alarming, is also the least surprising. As David Burnham noted in "A Law >> Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power" (1990), "In almost every >> administration since the IRS's inception the information and power of the >> tax agency have been mobilized for explicitly political purposes." >> >> President Franklin Roosevelt used the IRS to harass newspaper publishers >> who were opposed to the New Deal, including William Randolph Hearst and >> Moses Annenberg, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Roosevelt also >> dropped the IRS hammer on political rivals such as the populist firebrand >> Huey Long and radio agitator Father Coughlin, and prominent Republicans >> such as former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Perhaps Roosevelt's most >> pernicious tax skulduggery occurred in 1944. He spiked an IRS audit of >> illegal campaign contributions made by a government contractor to >> Congressman Lyndon Johnson, whose career might have been derailed if Texans >> had learned of the scandal. >> >> President John F. Kennedy raised the political exploitation of the IRS to >> an art form. Shortly after capturing the presidency, JFK denounced "the >> discordant voices of extremism" and derided people who distrust their >> leadersPresident Obama didn't invent that particular rhetorical line. >> Shortly thereafter, JFK signaled at a news conference that he expected the >> IRS to be vigilant in policing the tax-exempt status of questionable (read: >> conservative) organizations. >> >> Within a few days of Kennedy's remarks, the IRS launched the Ideological >> Organizations Audit Project. It targeted right-leaning groups, including >> the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, the American Enterprise Institute and >> the Foundation for Economic Education. Kennedy also used the IRS to >> strong-arm companies into complying with "voluntary" price controls. Steel >> executives who defied the administration were singled out for audits. >> >> A 1976 report by the Senate Select Committee on Government Intelligence >> on the Kennedy program noted: "By directing tax audits at individuals and >> groups solely because of their political beliefs, the Ideological >> Organizations Audit Project established a precedent for a far more >> elaborate program of targeting 'dissidents.'" >> >> After Richard Nixon took office, his administration quickly created a >> Special Services Staff to mastermind what a memo called "all IRS activities >> involving ideological, militant, subversive, radical, and similar type >> organizations." More than 10,000 individuals and groups were targeted >> because of their political activism or slant between 1969 and 1973, >> including Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling (a left-wing critic of the Vietnam >> War) and the far-right John Birch Society. >> >> The IRS was also given Nixon's enemies list to, in the words of White >> House counsel John Dean, "use the available federal machinery to screw our >> political enemies." >> >> The exposure of Nixon's IRS abuses during congressional hearings in 1973 >> and 1974 profoundly weakened him during the uproar after the Watergate >> hotel break-in. The second article of his 1974 impeachment charged him with >> endeavoring to obtain from the IRS "confidential information contained in >> income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in >> violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or >> other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a >> discriminatory manner." Congress enacted legislation to severely restrict >> political contacts between the White House and the IRS. >> >> In the following decades, the IRS regularly sparked outrage by abusing >> innocent taxpayers, but there was not much controversy about the agency's >> politicizing until Bill Clinton took office. >> >> In 1995, the White House and the Democratic National Committee produced a >> 331-page report entitled "Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce" that >> attacked magazines, think tanks and other entities and individuals who had >> criticized President Clinton. In the subsequent years, many organizations >> mentioned in the White House report were hit by IRS audits. More than 20 >> conservative organizationsincluding the Heritage Foundation and the >> American Spectator magazineand almost a dozen individual high-profile >> Clinton accusers, such as Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, were audited. >> >> The Landmark Legal Foundation sued the IRS in 1997 after being audited. >> Its brief quoted an IRS official who had explained at an IRS meeting in San >> Francisco that audit requests from members of Congress or their staff had >> been shredded and also suggested how future requests from Capitol Hill >> could be camouflaged. The IRS told the court that it could not find 114 key >> files relating to possible political manipulation of audits of tax-exempt >> organizations. >> >> One potential bombshell of the Clinton era that went relatively >> unrecognized was an Associated Press report in 1999 that "officials in the >> Democratic White House and members of both parties in Congress have >> prompted hundreds of audits of political opponents in the 1990s," including >> "personal demands for audits from members of Congress." Audit requests from >> congressmen were marked "expedite" or "hot politically" and IRS officials >> were obliged to respond within 15 days. Permitting congressmen to secretly >> and effortlessly sic G-men on whomever they pleased epitomized official >> Washington's contempt for average Americans and fair play. But because the >> abuse was bipartisan, there was little enthusiasm on Capitol Hill for an >> investigation. >> >> The IRS has usually done an excellent job of stifling investigations of >> its practices. A 1991 survey of 800 IRS executives and managers by the >> nonprofit Josephson Institute of Ethics revealed that three out of four >> respondents felt entitled to deceive or lie when testifying before a >> congressional committee. >> >> The agency also has a long history of seeking to intimidate congressional >> critics: In 1925, Internal Revenue Commissioner David Blair personally >> delivered a demand for $10 million in back taxes to Michigan's Republican >> Sen. James Couzenswho had launched an investigation of the Bureau of >> Internal Revenueas he stepped out of the Senate chamber. More recently, >> after Sen. Joe Montoya of New Mexico announced plans in 1972 to hold >> hearings on IRS abuses, the agency added his name to a list of tax >> protesters who were capable of violence against IRS agents. >> >> With the current IRS scandal, we may have seen only the tip of the >> iceberg. Thorough congressional investigations would no doubt help reveal >> the extent of the operation, and the criminal investigation announced by >> the Justice Department on Tuesday may prove fruitful as well. Regardless of >> what these inquiries uncover, though, we can be almost certain that IRS >> audits will remain irresistible political weapons. >> >> >> Mr. Bovard is the author, most recently, of the e-book memoir "Public >> Policy Hooligan." >> >> A version of this article appeared May 15, 2013, on page A15 in the U.S. >> edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: A Brief History of >> IRS Political Targeting. >> >> >> >> http://stream.wsj.com/story/**latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/**SS-2-232185/<http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-232185/> >> >> -- >> -- >> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. >> For options & help see >> http://groups.google.com/**group/PoliticalForum<http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum> >> >> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ >> * It's active and moderated. 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