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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>From today’s (January 16, 2006) Spokesman Review –<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Aggressive audit of poor par for course <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Molly Ivins <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Creators Syndicate<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>January 16, 2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'>AUSTIN</span></font></st1:City><font
face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-family:Arial'>, <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:State> – Boy, you really can't take
your eyes off this bunch for a minute, can you? If they're not screwing up one
thing, then they're screwing up another – busy little beavers. And then
there are the administrative nightmares they have created all by themselves:
The new Medicare prescription-drug benefit is such a disaster area, four states
took it over in less than a week just to make sure poor people received their
drugs. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Some of the press is starting to get the drill. Give us
something like the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">West Virginia</st1:place></st1:State>
coal mine disaster, and instead of standing around emoting like Geraldo Rivera,
a few reporters have enough sense to ask the obvious question: What is this
mine's safety record? And when it turns out to be abysmal, a few more reporters
have enough sense to ask: Who's in charge of doing something after a mine gets
205 safety violations in one year? Where's the Mine Safety and Health
Administration? Who runs it? What's their background – are they
professionals or mining industry stooges? Who's the Michael
"Heckuvajob" Brown in this outfit? Why are so many jobs at MSHA just
left completely unfilled? How much has MSHA's budget been cut since 2001 to pay
for tax cuts for the rich? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The great irony is that this was supposed to be the CEO
administration. Bush was supposed to put people in charge of government who had
track records in private industry, who did in fact know how to run a railroad.
For just sheer incompetence, this administration sets new records daily. All
those years the right wing sat around yammering about government incompetence,
and it took this administration to make it true. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>But while the press is busy sort of figuring out what
government needs to do – homeland security, anyone? – other
agencies are slipping quietly out of control, with almost no attention paid. In
the case of the Internal Revenue Service, the problem appears to be more malice
than incompetence. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Right-wing conspiracy theorists used to enjoy frightening
themselves with the possibility that the IRS would somehow become politicized
and be used as a tool by some nasty socialist like Jimmy Carter to go after
their ill-gotten gains stashed illegally offshore. Always seemed like a good
plan to me. Unfortunately, the only people who ever tried to politicize the IRS
were on the right – first Richard Nixon and now George W. Bush. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Hundreds of thousands of poor Americans have had their tax
refunds frozen and their returns labeled fraudulent, according to the IRS's
taxpayer advocate, Nina Olson. Testifying before Congress last week, Olson said
the average income of these taxpayers is $13,000. Olson and her staff sampled
the suspected returns and found that, at most, one in five was questionable. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The poor citizens are seeking refunds under the Earned
Income Tax Credit, a Reagan program to help the working poor. The total
possible tax fraud amount involved in these returns is $9 billion –
compared with the $100 billion problem with fraud by small businessmen who deal
in cash. That's the kind of shrewd administration we've come to expect from the
Bushies. Olson points out it is not only unfair, but also a waste of time.
Meanwhile, mind-boggling sums in taxes are being evaded by those at the other
end of the income scale. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>David Cay Johnston, the New York Times' tax expert and
author of "Perfectly Legal," reports the IRS is now involved in an
effort to cover up these very kinds of incompetence that Olson demonstrated.
"Records showing how thoroughly the IRS audits big corporations and the
rich, and how much it discounts the additional taxes assessed after audits, are
being withheld from the public despite a 1976 court order requiring their
disclosure," Johnston writes. In an episode reminiscent of the three
stooges, the IRS simply announced there was no court order. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>This is, of course, part of a far wider and grimmer shutdown
of information about our government. Despite cheerful burbling from the
president ("The presumption ought to be that citizens ought to know as
much as possible about the government decision-making," he said last
year), this administration's love of secrecy is monumental. In fact, the cost
of keeping what our government does secret from the public has gone up
alarmingly: The classification system that cost $4.3 billion in fiscal year
2000 was up to $7.2 billion in fiscal year 2004. That's a lot of Wite-Out.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Meanwhile, the IRS has also tracked the political
affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states. Its explanation is that the information
was "routinely collected by a vendor" and, of course, it made no use
of it. And now the IRS is planning to "outsource" collecting overdue
taxes to private firms around the country. Now, let's see, do we think any of
those private firms will have Republican Party affiliations?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Take care, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Moscow, Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"</span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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