Athenae, Stupid Republican Tricks

Attacks on the IRS

Way to go, teabaggers!

Over the past four years, there appears to be a “steady, upward
trend” in threats against IRS staffers, a TIGTA official told Dow Jones
Newswires last week. The most unnerving incident in recent memory
occurred just two weeks ago, when Joseph Stackflew his plane into IRS offices in Austin, Texas, killing one employee nearing retirement.

Other notable attacks on the tax-collecting arm of the government in recent years include:

In March of 2009, Randy Nowak hired a hit man to kill an IRS worker
auditing his tax return and to burn down IRS offices in Lakeland, Fla.
He was sentenced to 30 years in jail.

In 2008, Earnest Milton Barnett rammed his Jeep Cherokee into the
IRS’s Birmingham, Ala., offices and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

You know, I pay my taxes, not grudgingly, but not all that happily either. I mean, does anybody like giving money up? But at the end of the day, I like roads and schools and cops, and while I’m not hugely a fan of paying the stupid politicians I do recognize you have to pay them all if you’re gonna pay some of ’em. Still, the annual reminder of how much money I pay out burns.

But in my wildest resentful nightmares I would never imagine that it’s some clerk, some typist, some middle manager, some auditor, event, at the local IRS office would be to blame for my plight, and would go on the attack against a place where those people work. You know, this is what the “leaders” of the teabagger resentment fest don’t get. To them, stirring up tax rage is a completely abstract thing they’re doing. To the people listening to them, though, it’s disturbingly concrete.

A.

10 thoughts on “Attacks on the IRS”

  2. I keep telling my son-in-law that he can cut his income taxes the same way I cut mine – just earn less money. He is one of those who believe that every penny he earns should belong to him, with no taxes at all due on them.
    I still remember the pride I used to feel when I found myself in a higher tax bracket. That meant I was moving on up. And, I never once begrudged the government its share, nor do I now.

  3. I am keenly aware that many people feel any government employee – fed or state – is fair game for resentment and derision. It’s been expressed to me by a sibling even. To those people, gov. employees are just leeches without the talent or ambition to go out and find a “real” job or start their own business. Try to convince them that these employees actually work- they don’t believe it. I remember trying to explain to my relative that I was happy about my job because the benefits were great, I believed public education is a worthwhile enterprise, and it was (and this was the kicker) a liberal and diverse environment. The response was scorn: while I was sitting here on fantasy island and ‘taking it easy,’ other people (REAL Americans) are out there working their fingers to the bone. I’ve seen this same kind of mindset time and again. People who hate government cannot believe that anyone who works within it does anything skilled, or difficult, much less worthwhile.
    Obviously, the IRS would come in for the lion’s share of this kind of vitriol.
    Some people believed Vernon Hunter’s death didn’t get enough attention because he was black. That may be true to some extent but I think it’s more because to a lot of the anti-tax idiots, he was just an idea to them. These same people ritualistically idolize military service but Hunter’s two tours of duty in VietNam were zeroed out by his work for the IRS. He was a null set, not even a person.

  4. The IRS is full of abuse. They have a number of interesting… tactics when it comes to making money that are blatantly illegal. However, given that judges simply don’t rule against the IRS, they get away with it.
    They mail out ‘refunds’ people don’t deserve with a letter saying they incorrectly did not credit them with this money. Then when people deposit the checks, they slam them for taking money they didn’t deserve. If the IRS has access to their account due to direct deposit, they will automatically make the deposit AND automatically incur all penalties.
    So no, this isn’t just about not liking to pay taxes. This is about a group of scumbags who ignore rampant financial impropriety on the part of the wealthy and seek to make that money back by inflicting their disgusting brand of ‘justice’ on everyone else. People hate the IRS for a reason, and it’s not just about greed. It’s about rampant government abuse.
    I know many so-called progressives don’t want to hear that, but these people aren’t preying on the wealthy. They are preying on what little bit is left of the middle class.

  5. I hate paying taxes. But I can’t get over the fact that my taxes fund the roads I like to drive on. they fund my Fire Department which means I get a lower insurance rate. etc.
    While the IRS admittedly has been caught in some rather heavy-handed tactics, I cannot support the indiscriminate, random, killing and terrorism of IRS employees.
    I would like to see, however, a study on the influence of hate radio, tea baggers, and politicos making stupid statements (like after the plane crash a few weeks ago) on the violence against the IRS.
    For disclosure, I used to work for a state agency dealing with the Environment and Health. While we tried to fairly administer the law, we were the brunt of a lot of the abuse mentioned by soullite. Just the fact that you’re administering the law means you are gonna make half the people angry. And from what soullite references, it is only a short step to singling out judges and elected officials.

  6. I know many so-called progressives don’t want to hear that, but these people aren’t preying on the wealthy. They are preying on what little bit is left of the middle class.
    Umm, in fact, they are preying on the working poor. The number of cases brought against people filing returns involving EITC has skyrocketed. But, I hasten to add, this was not something the IRS did on its own–it was directed to do that by Congress.
    Yes, the IRS has been politicized, and that began with the President, the Vice-President and Congress (which also wrote the legislation to privatize IRS collections, which wasted enormous amounts of money and resources).
    Tax evasion by the wealthy is rampant, but, it’s not the workers in the IRS that came up with the policy of ignoring the problem.

  8. However, given that judges simply don’t rule against the IRS, they get away with it.
    Judges rule against the IRS all the time. When corporations are involved, that is.

  9. And there are quite a few professional tax preparers (J_______ H______ comes to mind) that make organized EITC fraud a way of business. Claim enough unverified income to put you in the sweet spot of not having to pay taxes but claim the EITC. Licensing of tax preparers is waaaaaay overdue.
    And that’s without getting into the highly abusive refund anticipation loan racket. Makes the IRS look like a bunch of angels.

  10. I like paying taxes, but I get healthcare out of the deal. Sure wish I didn’t have to also be paying Stephen F. Harper’s salary, though.

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