The forced resignation of the acting IRS chief will do little to quiet the storm over the tax agency's targeting of politically conservative nonprofit groups. What steps might?
President Obama speaks on the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday. Obama announced the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, the top official at the IRS.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
EnlargeThe heads are starting to roll at the Internal Revenue Service, but it will take a lot more than a single high-profile resignation to quiet the storm raging over the IRS targeting scandal.
Skip to next paragraphRecent posts
' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
In a delayed act of damage control, President Obama announced Wednesday evening the forced resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller. It was, of course, only a matter of time, an expected move to assign blame and accountability, as well as provide catharsis for an angry public.
?Americans are right to be angry about it, and I?m angry about it,? Mr. Obama said, adding that he ?will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has.?
The Obama administration also released a letter from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew that demanded that Mr. Miller resign in order ?to restore public trust and confidence in the IRS.? (The IRS is part of the Treasury Department.)
The resignation came six days after news emerged of the Internal Revenue Service's targeting actions and a day after a watchdog report concluded the agency used ?inappropriate criteria? to screen groups seeking tax-exempt status. The IRS used keywords and phrases such as ?tea party? and ?patriot? to target conservative groups for extra scrutiny.
In fact, the targeting occurred not under Miller, but during the tenure of former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. Still, lawmakers say Miller did not inform Congress about the targeting practice, despite inquiries from Republican lawmakers.
Not surprisingly, Republicans aren?t satisfied with his resignation.
?Simply allowing the acting head of the IRS to resign is not enough,? Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement, calling on Obama to apologize to the American people.
In a tweet he added, ?This is clearly a scapegoat that distracts from answering the core Qs.?
House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio also said he?s looking for more.
?My question isn?t about who is going to resign. My question is who?s going to jail over this scandal?? he said Wednesday.
The answer will have to wait for the outcome of a Justice Department criminal investigation. Meanwhile, the White House says it will name a new acting IRS commissioner this week, according to Politico.
At this point, the most likely internal candidate would be Chief Counsel William Wilkins, a political appointee whom the IRS has gone to great lengths to distance from the scandal.
To say it would be among the least-envied jobs in Washington right now would be a gross understatement. The new acting commissioner would, no doubt, face gargantuan challenges.
Among them, he or she would have to address the faulty protocol that led to the inappropriate targeting in the first place. And because the scandal exposed clear problems in the tax code?s designation of politically oriented nonprofits, the new commissioner may need to call for an overhaul of the auditing process for 501(c)(3)s and related groups.
Perhaps most important, however, as Politico pointed out, Miller?s successor would have ?a massive public relations job to carry out, convincing Congress and the American public that the agency can get back on track and become a trusted government entity again.?
A task not fit for the faint of heart.?
Pat Summerall Martin Richard Bbc News friends tracy mcgrady tracy mcgrady awkward
No comments:
Post a Comment