Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Human nature being what it is, no one can be 100 percent impartial or neutral. But civil servants should remember who pays their salary.
When news broke that the IRS, charged with enforcing tax laws, deliberately targeted conservative organizations for extra scrutiny for tax-exempt status, I doubt many people were surprised. Similar unsurprising news has emerged. According to the Washington Times, IRS employees in Dallas have pro-Obama screensavers, buttons, stickers, and I’m sure a host of other items.
In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name,” the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement.
OSC said it is seeking “significant disciplinary action” against that employee.
Another IRS employee in Kentucky has agreed to serve a 14-day suspension for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer.
“They’re going to take women back 40 years,” the IRS employee said in a conversation that was recorded. The employee also said that “if you vote for a Republican, the rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer.”
The Dallas office and the Kentucky employee are only the tip of a massive iceberg. The IRS has broad power over American citizens, and the least these civil servants can do is give the appearance of being impartial, regardless who’s in office, and keep their personal views out of it.
