The Homa Files

I was in the car on Friday morning and tuned the radio to the Congressional testimony of the Treasury IG and Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller.

In a word: frightening.

First, the IG seems like a straight arrow.  HIs answers were direct, structured and fact-based.

He dished the bad news, but wouldn’t take the GOP bait to condemn beyond his specific findings.

Then, there was this clown.

Let’s put this situation in perspective and then drill down …

 

The IRS is a big, powerful agency.

More than 100,000 employees … with 16,000 more coming to enforce ObamaCare.

Empowered to literally crush citizens who don’t precisely comply with a bloated, complicated, often conflicting. Byzantine tax code.

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Is Steven Miller the most capable person they could find to run one of the most powerful government agencies?

If yes, we’re in even bigger trouble than I thought.

If no, then why the hell was this wingnut put in the position?

If his testimony was indicative of his capabilities, he wouldn’t make through a round one interview at a real company.

Arrogant, unstructured, ignorant, sleazy … totally unprofessional.

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Is there anybody with an IQ over 50 who doesn’t think the IRS was targeting conservative groups ?

The line about “inappropriate criteria” is intellectually  insulting.

Why were “Tea Party”, “Patriot” and “Constitution” on the screening list, but “Progressive”, “Green”, and “Labor”  weren’t ?

Best counter examples:

1) One Tea Party org was strung out for 18 months, withdrew its app and resubmitted, changing its name from Tea Party to Green Party … approved in 3 weeks.

2) Obama’s half-bro got his org approved in less than a month.

Coincidence ?

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Was it simply an “efficiency” initiative ?

Conceivably, I can imagine bundling some applications for parallel processing.

But …

If so, why wouldn’t efficiency be boosted by bundling all of the liberal-sounding apps, too.

What efficiency is gained by keeping apps alive in the system for a couple of years?

General rule of efficiency: handle it once and get it off the ‘to do’ list.

What efficiency is gained by adding a laundry list of (inappropriate) questions ?

One thing that i’ve learned teaching: if you ask an exam question, you have to grade it … and, that takes time … the more complicated the question, the longer the time to grade it.

A big liberal claim is that – while the apps were strung out (past the election) – none were denied.

If all apps are being approved, why go through the bureaucratic process in the first place?

OK, sample the apps to keep the system honest … but, no need for a 100% check if nothing’s getting rejected.

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Was the outcome simply “horrible customer service” ?

This takes euphemism to a sky high level.

Targeting people based on political beliefs isn’t horrible customer service.

It’s criminal behavior.

I want to see a perp walk … 

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This entry was posted on May 18, 2013 at 8:39 am and is filed under Abuse of Power, Government Abuse, IRS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.