Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Have a look at these people, all of them. See their smug, superior expressions, witness their imperious attitude, hear their unctuous words. These are individuals drunk on administrative authority no one voted them, intoxicated by petty power, and made to feel invincible by bureaucratic anonymity

How to answer the IRS

“I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated IRS rules and regulations.” – Lois Lerner

Herewith, the former director of the Internal Revenue Service’s exempt-organizations division, now enjoying fully paid administrative leave at taxpayer expense, provided the perfect template for responding to her erstwhile agency. To wit, the next time the IRS contacts you with questions, just quote Lois Lerner....

It is a funny thing, the urgency and insistence with which the IRS demands particulars of citizens. We are expected to respond promptly to them — yet they decline to answer to taxpayers. The richest bit of all, of course, is they work for us, despite their misapprehensions to the contrary.

Ms. Lerner’s testimony — to the extent her self-serving opening statement, followed by a contemptible refusal to answer questions, can be classified as such — was only one part of the parade of horribles that has passed before Congress. Former IRS Commissioners Douglas Shulman and Steven Miller were utterly reptilian in their committee appearances and, for America, the spectacle should be instructive...

And perfectly consistent with the new administrative state, those who fail or misbehave are rewarded. Beyond Ms. Lerner’s paid, indefinite vacation, Sarah Hall Ingram, who was commissioner for the IRS’ tax-exempt division while it targeted tea party groups, has received over $100,000 in bonuses and been placed in charge of Obamacare enforcement.

Put another way, the well-paid, unelected, formerly unknown bureaucrat who, despite working in the tax department, somehow became the arbiter of free speech, will now be in charge of scrutinizing your health care.

OF PRIDE AND PETULANCE - Christopher Burton/Breitbart