Here in Utah and perhaps elsewhere, we lament the IRS’s alleged targeting of Tea Party non-profits for extra scrutiny of their non-profit applications and status because if it did so, it acted in an unfair, partisan manner. Yet, many of us praise those who in fact have personally targeted for termination those who supported President Obama. I know of bosses who executed their lay off policies by who’s cars had President Obama bumper stickers. I know of others who have lost business merely because of party affiliation.
We decry the IRS’s expenditures for imprudent conferences and for expensive public service ads. The justification for this was the “use it or lose it” mentality. The same I saw in the military under both republican and democratic regimes. Yet, every day I drive by a fetid, dead, brown canal coursing with thousands of cubic feet of water taken from our crystal, living streams and it is water that once, long ago, serviced local farms but that now simply runs its course to the Great Salt Lake while our streams this summer will trickle down to sluggish slim choked drainage ditches and all the life therein, the fish, vital food chain insects will gasp out their last breaths with bulging eyeballs and the vegetation will wither to brown, all because those that “own” the “water rights” will loose them if they don’t continue to impound them in their rank canals.
We detests the IRS because it collects our money for taxes yet we continue to demand more government services.
We deem it unfair that the IRS can penalize and charge interest on taxes we fail to pay on time but then when it takes our money inadvertently or improperly and must refund it we can exact no penalty and are granted no interest. Yet, our conservative lawmakers give the same powers to our local, county, and state governments.
We find it troubling that the IRS can cease benefits and refunds without giving us any due process yet we allow our conservative lawmakers give the same powers to our police forces and our state governments.
We disagree that the IRS is immune from certain types of liability yet our conservative lawmakers preserve that same immunity for our local, county, and state governments.
Finally, we don’t give the IRS the right of innocence until shown to be guilty if in fact all politically based non-profit organizations are suppose to come under greater scrutiny, yet when layoffs and terminations seem on their face to target older workers or first generation minorities, we give CEO’s the benefit of the doubt that legitimate criteria were used like cutting costs and enforcing neutral work status laws.
The paradoxes, ironies and hypocrisies only highlight that we are a mirror of our government.
Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert - A potential client came to me the other day because 5 out of 10 employees who did the same work were suddenly laid off with no explanation. The terminated five were all Hispanics. The retained were two Asians and three Caucasians. Did the layoffs target Hispanics? Yes. Was it against the law? No. Why? The company did a review for all of its employees to make sure they had proper documentations. Those laid off did not. It sounds like the IRS violated the law, yet given that a person in this country is innocent until shown to be guilty, I will with hold complete judgment until all the facts come out. Moreover, intent matters--criminally--perception is only an indication that a complete and thorough investigation needs to be conducted by officials independent of political affiliation. As far as addressing the matter civilly, the same due process does not apply and the IRS and the Executive Branch needs to take swift action to correct any actual or perceived impropriety, wrongdoing, or poor judgment. I do not trust everything I hear on Fox News, nor necessarily its liberal counterpart.
Loren M. Lambert © June 6, 2013
We decry the IRS’s expenditures for imprudent conferences and for expensive public service ads. The justification for this was the “use it or lose it” mentality. The same I saw in the military under both republican and democratic regimes. Yet, every day I drive by a fetid, dead, brown canal coursing with thousands of cubic feet of water taken from our crystal, living streams and it is water that once, long ago, serviced local farms but that now simply runs its course to the Great Salt Lake while our streams this summer will trickle down to sluggish slim choked drainage ditches and all the life therein, the fish, vital food chain insects will gasp out their last breaths with bulging eyeballs and the vegetation will wither to brown, all because those that “own” the “water rights” will loose them if they don’t continue to impound them in their rank canals.
We detests the IRS because it collects our money for taxes yet we continue to demand more government services.
We deem it unfair that the IRS can penalize and charge interest on taxes we fail to pay on time but then when it takes our money inadvertently or improperly and must refund it we can exact no penalty and are granted no interest. Yet, our conservative lawmakers give the same powers to our local, county, and state governments.
We find it troubling that the IRS can cease benefits and refunds without giving us any due process yet we allow our conservative lawmakers give the same powers to our police forces and our state governments.
We disagree that the IRS is immune from certain types of liability yet our conservative lawmakers preserve that same immunity for our local, county, and state governments.
Finally, we don’t give the IRS the right of innocence until shown to be guilty if in fact all politically based non-profit organizations are suppose to come under greater scrutiny, yet when layoffs and terminations seem on their face to target older workers or first generation minorities, we give CEO’s the benefit of the doubt that legitimate criteria were used like cutting costs and enforcing neutral work status laws.
The paradoxes, ironies and hypocrisies only highlight that we are a mirror of our government.
Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert - A potential client came to me the other day because 5 out of 10 employees who did the same work were suddenly laid off with no explanation. The terminated five were all Hispanics. The retained were two Asians and three Caucasians. Did the layoffs target Hispanics? Yes. Was it against the law? No. Why? The company did a review for all of its employees to make sure they had proper documentations. Those laid off did not. It sounds like the IRS violated the law, yet given that a person in this country is innocent until shown to be guilty, I will with hold complete judgment until all the facts come out. Moreover, intent matters--criminally--perception is only an indication that a complete and thorough investigation needs to be conducted by officials independent of political affiliation. As far as addressing the matter civilly, the same due process does not apply and the IRS and the Executive Branch needs to take swift action to correct any actual or perceived impropriety, wrongdoing, or poor judgment. I do not trust everything I hear on Fox News, nor necessarily its liberal counterpart.
Loren M. Lambert © June 6, 2013
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