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May 20, 2013 |
| THIS WEEK | |
| Oh, please, spare us any more pious declarations. After a week of “IRS scandal,” we simply can’t bear another bogus claim that we’re witnessing one of the “most shameful abuses of government power in 20th-century American history.”We’re witnessing no such thing. Let’s be clear about what’s really happened: An understaffed and overburdened IRS office responsible for handling applications for a tax-exempt status that lets political groups conceal their donors cut corners.This office took the “path of least resistance.” Staffers crudely targeted a “rickety raft of minor Tea Party groups” and ignored the “heavily lawyered-up big-money groups” that had already gained this special tax-exempt status. These billionaire-subsidized outfits would go on to pump over $250 million into the 2012 elections.The real scandal here? Our super rich, as campaign finance reformer Arn Pearson puts it, are continuing “to influence the outcome of elections while keeping their identities secret.” The real core problem here? The continuing concentration of America’s wealth in a precious few hands. More on that concentration — and its toxic impact — in this week’s Too Much. Continue reading » | |
