Deeply pernicious IRS/Tea Party scandal

COAST has been encouraged about the depth of outrage in the media and among politicians, even if almost all of those speaking out on the issue are Republicans, on the IRS/Tea Party scandal.  For this issue hits at the heart of our everlasting yearning to be be a free people.

Among the most-feared governmental agencies is the Internal Revenue Service.  This is so for several reasons.  First, because the power to tax is the power to destroy, the IRS can seize fortunes and ruin lives, and they can do so by prosecuting and prevailing against claimed "wrongdoing" (more on that below), but also by investigating and putting their targets through the pepper mill, even if no wrongdoing is claimed.

Those who have endured their inquisitorial processes have lost years off their lives, and portions of their fortunes defending against their inquiries.

And the liberal response would be: "You have nothing to fear if you've followed the law."

But as everyone knows, the law is so byzantine, so voluminous, and so confusing that no American can be in compliance with the tax law.  It's impossible.  Varying interpretations and maze-like regulations mean that one man's compliance is another man's felony.  One man's tax haven resulting in a home in the south of France can be the same as another's trip to Club Fed.

Thus, we rely upon fair and even-handed treatment under the law, the exact opposite of "targeting."

And the problem is not just a system with bad policies, but a system that allows "low-level bureaucrats in Cincinnati"to "target" and run roughshod over the rights of an entire category of citizens for -- partisan political purposes.

In a separate blog entry, see some of the worst abuses by the IRS.  It is frightening.

Words cannot describe the damage done to our democracy by these excesses.

100% accountability is required in this circumstance.  Those responsible should be fired, civilly sued and criminally prosecuted.  The bastards!