The Real IRS Scandal

Yeah, no reason to look into these peoples' taxes. . .

I know I'm lefty, liberal, moonbat, but I'm having a difficult time finding the "scandal" in the IRS/Tea Party scandal. Let's see, in 2009--right after President Obama took office--a thousand "Tea Party" groups sprung up all over the country. Lots of them file for tax exempt status. Now, all of these groups have some variation of "tea party," "taxed enough already," "patriots," "freedom" and other co-opted right-wing buzzwords as names. They're on record as absolutely hating taxation. And they are obviously, overtly political. These tax exemptions are supposed to apply to primarily non-political organizations. Ipso facto, badda-bing, Bob's your uncle, AUDIT TIME. What's the problem?

The worry seems to be that the IRS was being partisan and not balanced. But was there an equal and opposite phenomenon going on, on the left at the time? Maybe the "occupy" movement, though that came later. But were they trying for the same status? Anyway, fine. If there were copious amounts of political groups on the left vying for the same status, and yet were ignored by the IRS? Make the scandal about that. But the focus on the tea party groups sounds completely legit on the surface to me. We need more information before jumping to conclusions.

Meanwhile, Lawrence O'Donnell has focused in on the underlying problem at the root of this potential scandal: a change in the meaning of the word "exclusive" by the IRS, all the way back in 1959. It's worth a view even if you're a rightie, for the history lesson. Take a look.

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And, per usual, there is a blogger out there who does this better than me who goes by the nom de plume The Rude Pundit. If you think you have a better handle on this scandlette than I do, please read this (The IRS "Scandal" Isn't a Scandal, But It Will Get Annoying) and see if you still feel that way.