When two countries go to war, the citizen-taxpayers supply both the funds and the bodies to pursue it. The residents of Lower Slobovi fund their military’s just and valiant efforts. The taxpayers of Upper Mandiville support their brave, and equally just, warriors.

The narrative in wars is nearly always the same. The other guy started it. And the winner writes the official history.

In the case of the war between the IRS and House Republicans, the taxpayers of the same country — as in where you live, work and pay taxes — are paying both sides. And getting the shaft in the process. And losing money both in taxes and services.

Congress writes tax law. The IRS carries out our incredibly complicated and loophole-filled tax code. This one is a war between the people (the House and Senate) who oversee and fund (sometimes, with your money) the agency that collects the money in the form of income and corporate taxes. Your wallet and purse make it all possible.

House Republicans believe that certain partisan high-level IRS officials operated a system that made it very difficult for conservative groups to get special tax breaks that have been approved for other political organizations. They believe that it was folks in high places in Washington — not lesser brass in the Cincinnati regional office — that approved the road blocks for conservative groups and Tea Party affiliates. They believe top officials covered up the system and withheld emails that would have been the smoking-gun evidence.

The IRS has consistently said there was no wrongdoing. And there was never a system to target conservative groups, no cabal against the Tea Party and other conservative or libertarian organizations.

The one thing many people agree on is this: That the government is losing lots of revenue, as in billions of dollars each year. That’s because the IRS budget is a powerful weapon and the IRS has been shrinking even as the number of taxpayers and tax base are growing dramatically. And when people — often very rich people — don’t pay their share (or anything), the shortfall is made up by the person you have slept with every night since birth. You.

The House Judiciary Committee plans hearings today to look at evidence collected by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. They’ve investigated IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and worst (or best depending on your politics) case scenario that this could be step one toward impeachment of the commissioner.

Last week, Michael Leszcz sent a heads up to members of the Professional Managers Association. He’s president of the PMA, which has lots of members in the IRS. But in a sense the message is to all of us, regardless of where we work, because we all pay taxes to the same place.

“As some of you know, my father retired from his first career as an Air Force pilot at age 48 (10,000+ hours in the air from WW 2 through Vietnam)… went to law school at the U. of Maryland. He wanted a storefront law practice in Dover, Delaware. He wanted to practice law for the average person, which he did until retiring, again, at 75.

“One of the comments he left me was that he wanted people who ended up in court… to reach an end to what sometimes turned into a never-ending story, either a positive or a negative outcome, so they could get on with family, the jobs and life in general.

“As many of those we have entrusted with positions of authority in Congress are also lawyers, hopefully some of them will have a similar perspective. Then, we can soon close on the issue of handling political groups applying for non-profit status, so the 80,000 men and women of the IRS can get on with their jobs of providing service to our fellow 300 million plus Americans as the IRS attempts to implement the tax laws that have been written by those in Congress.”

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

The total number of emails sent and received every day in 2017 is expected to 206.6 billion.

Source: Email Statistics Report

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