IRS Targets Tea Party

The IRS was caught targeting right wing political organizations, those critical of government spending, and groups promoting the constitution. Targeting words and names like "Tea party", "Patriot", and "Debt".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/irs-targeted-groups-critical-of-government-documents-from-agency-probe-show/2013/05/12/bb38e5bc-bb24-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html?hpid=z1

While the White House describes this development as "inappropriate", Senator Susan Collins who is one of the more moderate voices within the Senate has described this new scandal as "chilling".  I try to imagine what kind of concern I may have had, if more liberal groups had been the target and this had occurred during the Bush administration.  While many of the references to Nixon passed around in the right wing media are unwarranted.  The seriousness of the criminal infringement of political speech can not be dismissed like much of the pablum that gets thrown around.  Had this scrutiny within the IRS been brought to bear upon abuses by "social welfare" organizations in a broad way that didn't target right wing political speech then this would have been a legitimate and welcome step.  Ever since the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, undisclosed money has been flowing into these kinds of organizations that exploit tax structures traditionally used by groups like firefighters.  Ads run under the pretense that they are issue oriented, and not promoting or attacking a candidate during an election... Which of course is absurd.  No reference to any of the concerns about the abuse of tax structures by political organizations justifies or negates the concern here.  The IRS cannot be singling out the political speech of right wing organizations.  While this scandal unfolds we need to keep this in mind: Who knew what and when did they know it?  It is not at all clear how far up this scandal goes.  Those who want to suggest that this is a conspiracy that involves the White House do not serve their agenda well making these claims in the absence of facts.  It doesn't help get at those facts, or bring those who are responsible to account.  I'd also argue that it's not good for the country, but the number of people who care about that seems to be declining.  Which is also probably why the IRS had gone awry, and thought targeting political speech was a good idea.