IRS Employees Don’t Just Target Political Enemies, They Also Support Friends, Says Federal Watchdog

We already know that the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) has a
long history of wielding its awesome clout against political
opponents of sitting presidents, powerful members of Congress,
and the tax collectors themselves, but who are IRS employees
for? Well, President Obama seems to tickle their fancy.
According to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the
Hatch Act limiting political activity by federal employees, IRS
employees are “alleged to have engaged in partisan political
activity on duty and in the federal workplace.”

Under federal law, IRS employees, like most federal workers, are
considered “less
restricted employees” who still must mind their actions lest
they be be seen as using the taxpayers’ money and resources to
influence who gets to rule over those taxpayers. According to the
list of no-nos, such federal workers “May not engage in
political activity—i.e., activity directed at the success
or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political
office, or partisan political group— while the employee is on duty,
in any federal room or building, while wearing a uniform or
official insignia, or using any federally owned or leased
vehicle.”

Nevertheless, in a press
release dated April 9, the Office of Special Counsel reports
that not just individual IRS employees but whole offices are openly
rooting for the incumbent president of the United States.

OSC received allegations that employees working in the IRS
Taxpayer Assistance Center in Dallas, Texas, violated the Hatch Act
by wearing pro-Obama political stickers, buttons, and clothing to
work and displaying pro-Obama screensavers on their IRS computers.
It could not be determined whether these materials were displayed
prior to the November 2012 election or only afterwards. However,
since the information OSC received alleged that these items were
commonplace throughout the office, OSC issued cautionary guidance
to all IRS employees in the Dallas Taxpayer Assistance Center that
they cannot wear or display any items advocating for or against a
political party, partisan political group, or partisan candidate in
the workplace.

Other IRS employees face discipline for advising taxpayers to
vote for President Obama during the course of their duties.

This raises certain concerns given the tax agency’s acknowledged
ability to peer into and disrupt the lives of individual taxpayers
and organizations. Just yesterday, the House Ways and Means
Committee
voted to refer former IRS official Lois Lerner to the Justice
Department over allegations that she led the targeting of
conservative political organizations.

Long before the current scandal, presidents of both
parties—including
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and
Richard M. Nixon—used the IRS as a
bludgeon against political enemies. “My father,” Elliott
Roosevelt
said of FDR, “may have been the originator of the concept of
employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution.”

Further evidence of politicized tax collectors with distinct
partisan preferences does the IRS no favors—and should scare the
hell out of Americans.