Disgusted at the IRS? We cats are. Not because we think anything evil has been going on, but because they're dumb. And because we're seeing more maddening fallout from one of the most horrendous Supreme Court decisions ever made: Citizens United.
Yep, you can thank Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy for this one. Here's a quick refresher: These fine gentlemen (note our scratchy tongues planted firmly in our furry cheeks) overturned two lower-court decisions and said it was okay for the conservative group Citizens United to fund an overtly political film — a hissyfitty screed against a certain Presidential candidate. (That candidate was, of course, Hillary Clinton. You can't make this stuff up.)
Earlier rulings had gone the other way because as an ostensibly grassroots education and advocacy organization, Citizens United was forbidden from engaging in activities meant to influence elections. But thanks to the Supremes, it was now not only possible for Citizens United to do as it pleased, it meant that any crazy nutbag political group could form and spend zillions as a "charity" — with little or no transparency or accountability. Think Koch, think Rove — and oodles of other groups looking to evade tax laws and shelter the names of their donors.
As a result, in early 2010 the IRS was inundated with applications from organizations clamoring for tax exemption. Many of them were inspired with hatred and fury for Barack Obama and (at the time) healthcare reform, and had the words "tea party" in their names.
Call us cats apologists, call us naive, call us liberal losers — but we wonder why it would be inappropriate for the IRS to give special attention to organizations that take their names from a famous anti-tax demonstration. Just sayin'.
But, never mind. Our biggest beef with the agency is that — surprise! — they suck at vetting and oversight. In this ridiculous post-Citizens United world, with everyone engaging in everything you can imagine and in an orgy of political secrecy, the IRS should have put the brakes on everybody — everybody — applying for tax exemption.
(Oh, and note to Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller: It's best to avoid that Reaganesque "mistakes were made" crap. Your use of passive tense in this matter is contemptible and lame.)
UPDATE: Well, you wouldn't know it from the IRS website, but Mr. "Mistakes Were Made" is history. It's interesting to us cats that while most headlines on this side of the Atlantic gingerly describe it as Miller "being asked to resign," our friends in the UK immediately got it right: "Obama Fires IRA Acting Chief." Jolly good.
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