Originally published on Forbes.com June 24th, 2013
According to the Tax Prof, we just finished Day 46 of the IRS scandal. Paul Caron’s day count is reminiscent of the Iranian hostage crisis. The problem I see is how Professor Caron is ever going to be able to close out his series. The IRS employs nearly 100,000 people. God only knows how many former employees there must be and of course the IRS is likely the federal agency that the most people interact with. When you get that many people involved, there is bound to be something bad happening every day, which can then be incorporated into the scandal. That is not enough for some in the media. Stories are being framed to support the scandal narrative, which, if you read them attentively, seem to not be at all scandalous. Here are two stories from Day 46 that support my thesis.
Democratic Party Official Confesses To Bribing IRS Agents ?????
Wow. Talking about a smoking gun. Only when you actually read the story and the DOJ press release on which it is based, you find that there were no IRS agents involved and the bribery was incomplete:
On Oct. 5, 2010, Kazmark paid a $1,000 bribe to two individuals he thought were IRS officials in exchange for their official assistance in transferring his offer in compromise file to one of the officials so that the official could accept it. On Nov. 23, 2010, Kazmark made a $17,500 bribe payment to the individuals in exchange for their official assistance in placing his federal tax liability in noncollectible status for two years and agreeing to accept Kazmark’s offer in compromise for the amount of the check that he had already paid to the IRS – $9,760 – if he did not incur any additional federal tax liability for two years.
The release does not say who the two individuals were, but you might be able to make a reasonable inference:
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford, and special agents of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Robert Geary, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
TIGTA which has been providing us with all these juicy reports about line dancing in Anaheim and the Cincinnati gang that couldn’t sort straight is also charged with prosecuting people who attempt to corrupt the IRS. Local coverage of the story provided a more accurate headline:
Woodland Park Democratic official admits trying to bribe IRS officials
So the story is that a New Jersey politician thought he could take care of a problem by bribing somebody – shocking.
It turns out that the bribery attempt did not work. The message is sent that it is a very bad idea for somebody, even a Democratic politician, to try to bribe the IRS, yet the story ends up being framed as part of the IRS scandal.
The Heart of The Matter
The other interesting story from Day 46 requires a little bit of reflection to see that it does not support the scandal narrative, but rather inverts it. Stan Veuger tells us that Yes, IRS Harrassment Blunted the Tea Party Ground Game. Form that article we learn:
The bottom line is that the Tea Party movement, when properly activated, can generate a huge number of votes-more votes in 2010, in fact, than the vote advantage Obama held over Romney in 2012. The data show that had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 – 8.5 million votes compared to Obama’s victory margin of 5 million. …….
Unfortunately for Republicans, the IRS slowed Tea Party growth before the 2012 election. ……
As a consequence, the founders, members, and donors of new Tea Party groups found themselves incapable of exercising their constitutional rights, and the Tea Party’s impact was muted in the 2012 election cycle.
What do you call a 501(c)(4) organization that is frustrated in its efforts to affect the outcome of an election ? I’d call it an organization that should not qualify for 501(c)(4) status. The sponsor of the recent Audit the IRS rally was Tea Party Patriots Inc. In its fiscal year ended May 31, 2012 TPP Inc raised $3,000,000 more than it spent. We don’t know how TPP, Inc spent that surplus and what it subsequently raised in the run-up to the election and won’t know for nearly a year because of its fiscal year choice. We do, however, have a sample of a TPP Inc “fundraising call“:
This election is our last chance to stop Obamacare and prevent our country from becoming a cradle-to-grave welfare state
It reminds me of the scene in Charlie Wilson’s War where Tom Hanks relates driving voters to the polls and telling them that he did not wanted to influence their vote, but wanted them to know that Mr. Hazard had killed his dog.
There are many bigotries that rather annoy me. One particular one is the idea that someone of Italian descent must somehow be associated with organized crime. Anybody of my age who grew up in Fairview NJ ends up being Italian by association, which is the source of my annoyance on this score. The fact that there is bigotry around this issue does not mean that there are not any people of Italian descent involved in organized crime.
Now if I was going to pick somebody to refute the bigotry I would lean toward somebody like my fellow Son of Xavier Antonin Scalia. I would not pick someone who actually was involved in organized crime. Somehow or other, that is the course that the Tea Party has taken in the targeting scandal. The apparent mother ship organization clearly was trying to influence the outcome of the 2012 election, which is exactly what 501(c)(4) organizations are not supposed to be doing. Why the media is letting them get away with it is an interesting question.
You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.
Afternote on the Brenda and Larry Call
The link to Campaign HQ’s website no longer gives you audio. Here is my transcription of the lead-in
Hi. This is Brenda calling with an action alert from the Tea Party Patriots. Well Larry, I know you are busy so I will get right to the point. This election is our last chance to stop Obamacare and stop our country from becoming a cradle-to-grave welfare state. Right now wear just $50,000 short of the amount we need to finish our door-to-door voter outreach and carry out our plan to stop left-wing voter fraud.
Brenda asks Larry for a hundred bucks and politely badgers him till he agrees to cough up fifteen.