IRS Scandal Is Not A Scandal After All

About a month ago, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "scandal" hit the headlines in the mainstream media. It seems that there were some at the IRS who were supposedly targeting right-wing groups, and giving them special audits or investigations just because they happened to be right-wing political organizations. At the time, I wrote a post saying that the targeting of political groups by the IRS just because of their political leanings was wrong.

I still believe that is wrong (whether those groups are on the right or the left of the political spectrum). The government simply has too much power, and any special targeting of a political group would tend to suppress political thought and action of those with similar views. After all, few things are as scary as the federal government, with its almost unlimited power, snooping around in your affairs.

But now we know a whole lot more about the supposed "scandal". And it turns out that the IRS was not just looking at right-wing groups. They were also looking at progressive political groups. And they weren't trying to suppress those groups of either persuasion -- but just trying to make sure those groups were following the tax laws. Many of the groups had filed as a tax free social organization (meaning they could not take sides in a political election -- much the same restrictions as churches have to keep their tax-free status).

The IRS was just trying to determine whether these were political organizations, who were lying to the government so they wouldn't have to pay any taxes. And that is not only proper -- it is the job the IRS is supposed to be doing. I really don't have any problem with the IRS checking these groups (both right and left) to make sure they are not violating the law (and their tax-free status) by engaging in partisan politics.

In fact, I think the investigations should be widened extensively -- to include all of the fundamentalist churches who openly engaged in partisan politics leading up to the 2012 election. If those churches (or any other groups) want to play around in partisan politics, then they should be stripped of their tax-free status.