Some wonder why so much BlueCollar focus on the IRS intimidation issue…?
Because the very foundation of our American Exceptionalism is at risk.
What separates America from the rest of the world is that our U. S. Constitution tells our government what they CAN’T do to us as private citizens.
So, when a powerful government agency like the IRS uses intimidation and coercion tactics to suppress freedom of speech and assembly (not to mention the concept of ‘equal protection under the law’), it becomes a huge issue.
Just mentioning the IRS invokes feelings of trepidation and unease because of their power to affect our private lives…and, just as importantly…our election process.
Considering that, isn’t urgent oversight expected? Ask yourself…
Why did the IRS head visit the White House 118 times in 2010 & 2011, when, under the previous administration of President Bush, he only visited ONCE from 2003 to 2007?
Why did the IRS chief of the Tax Exempt unit insist on sitting in on interviews with IRS employees, as the Inspector General was investigating wrongdoing within that unit?
Even by the IRS’s own union standards, that’s not allowed!
Page 75 of their NTEU manual “Plain Talk about Employee Conduct and Ethical Behavior” says that IRS managers must…
“Ensure that individuals who are the subject of complaints, including those in the chain of command who have been substantively involved, do not participate in the information gathering or decision making.” (emphasis added) Ms. Paz, you better call your lawyer…
The first paragraph in this manual (page 3, Reporting Misconduct, Introduction) lays out the need for IRS employees to report misconduct and abuses. In addition, page 4 says:
“As a Supervisor, your responsibility goes beyond merely reporting the misconduct – you must take steps, where possible, to stop the misconduct or to prevent the misconduct in the future and ensure that the employee(s) involved understand that the behavior is unacceptable.” Not one iota of responsibility in this clause was followed!
Hundreds of conservative groups were targeted by this Tax Exempt unit. The IRS methodology was unconstitutional, illegal, and should have been reported…but wasn’t.
It shouldn’t take a Congressional hearing to realize stonewalling IRS managers – en masse – failed to do their job, as clearly laid out in their own NTEU internal directives, and even as noted by the IRS Inspector General.
There’s no possibility any manager within that Tax Exempt unit didn’t know.
Every manager in that unit’s chain of command should be dismissed summarily for willful incompetence and insubordination, but that’s only the beginning…
Section 1203 of the IRS RRA (1998) further justifies dismissal based on violations.
And such a massive violation of the public trust should justify a lifetime ban on them from holding ANY position of government service…including hometown dogcatcher.
Thomas Sowell says it best:
“The real danger to us all is when government not only exercises the powers that we have voted to give it, but also exercises additional powers…we never voted to give it.”
“That is when “public servants” become public masters.”
If we as a nation can’t protect ourselves from the lungeing excesses of a government we create, we’re no longer America.
(And we haven’t even started talking about the CRIMINAL aspects of this issue…)