Gail Collins, "Hard of Hearings": Pitying the IRS

Following a lame parody of the House Ways and Means Committee questioning of Steven Miller, the former head of the IRS, Gail Collins, in her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Hard of Hearings" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/opinion/collins-hard-of-hearings.html?_r=0), would explain away, in equally lame fashion, the targeting of conservative organizations. Collins begins by telling us that "it appears that there are people making decisions at the I.R.S. who have the intelligence of a wet Frisbee." Or in other words, the conduct of these IRS employees stemmed from stupidity and did not involve criminal intent.

Collins goes on to list excuses for their behavior:

"But here’s where the sympathy comes in. The I.R.S. employees were stuck with a pile of 70,000 applications for the tax-exempt status that’s awarded to organizations engaged in social welfare issues. Recently, political groups have been gaming the system, announcing they’re just do-gooders with a minor political sideline in order to qualify. When they succeed, they get to keep their donors secret. The rules for who qualifies are murky, and, according to Miller, only about 150 to 200 people were making the decisions about who got further scrutiny.

Also, they were working at the Determinations Unit of the Rulings and Agreements Office of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Spending their lives trying to clarify the 501(c)(4) status. You try that for a while and see how you like it.

If Congress wanted to help, the members could simplify the law so I.R.S. minions aren’t trying to figure out which groups spend only 49 percent of their resources on politics as opposed to 51 percent.

Or, they could give the I.R.S. more money to do the job it’s stuck with now. The budget has been cut almost $1 billion over the last few years, while its duties have expanded. Next Friday, I.R.S. workers will enjoy the first of a series of unpaid furloughs thanks to that sequester."

Or in other words, the IRS "made wildly inappropriate judgments and some of its top brass appears to have the spunk of a pillow," but they should be pitied because:

• Its employees are overworked.
• Tax-exempt status for some of these political groups is a scam.
• Any wrongdoing was limited to a small group of employees.
• The law is boring.
• The law is complicated.
• The IRS is understaffed.

So given all of the above, there is no need to get our underpants in a knot because a tiny number of IRS employees targeted conservatives.

What isn't Collins telling us? As reported by The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-panel-opens-hearing-on-irs-targeting-of-conservative-groups/2013/05/17/f1d7d352-beea-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html?hpid=z1):

"J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s top tax watchdog, said Friday he had informed top Treasury officials starting last spring about problems related to the special attention the agency was paying some conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. George said he shared the information with the Treasury’s general counsel in June and with Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin 'shortly thereafter.'"

Last spring? Hmm. That's just before the election. And these "top Treasury officials" decided that there was no need to inform anyone else of this apparent criminal activity with potentially explosive political consequences? Yeah, right.

Stay tuned.

Collins? She should stick to what she writes best, i.e. dog-on-the-roof.