E-J Dionne: As Taxes Come Due, Let;s Give The IRS Some Credit

As taxes come due, let's give the IRS some credit

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Thursday, April 15, 2010

You might imagine that if a terrorist attack killed an American public servant and threatened the lives of 200 people, it would have been big news for weeks and an enduring symbol of the risks taken by those who serve their country.

Yet when an American named Joseph Stack flew a plane into an office building in Austin in February, killing Vernon Hunter, a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran, the news reports were remarkably muted, and the story quickly disappeared.

Hunter worked for the Internal Revenue Service, which was housed in the Austin building, and according to Stack's suicide note, the IRS was his target.

On or about April 15, the Web and the commentary pages overflow with assaults on the IRS that cast its employees as jackbooted thugs, to use an old phrase, and our tax system as a form of oppression comparable to the exertions of the worst Russian czars and the most fiendish modern totalitarian dictators.

We should call this propaganda what it is: a sweeping falsehood that libels the work of committed federal employees such as Hunter.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/14/AR2010041403560.html

I agree their are many honest hard working people in all forms of government! we may all have our gripes about some department or fee we have to pay but the employees help keep this nation going!
our gripes can be solved by ballot!

I just wish they had more of a budget to go after the serious tax evaders - those millionaires and billionaires who hide and shelter so much income.

The right-wingers who don't want to pay their taxes are freeloaders.