In the Dark

Many things happen in the dark of the night. The monsters come out of the closet. The break-ins many fear often happen after the sun sets. And, apparently that is when the House Republicans want to sneak into your tax returns.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2005 contained language which would have directed the IRS to show individual tax returns to officials representing the Appropriations Committee upon demand. That’s right, on a late Saturday night; a lame-duck session of the House decided politicians and their agents could read anyone’s tax returns. One can only imagine what the Republican Party leaders had planned for that information.

At first glance we imagine targeting large donors Democratic like George Soros. However, not only are Mr. Soros’ donations already public knowledge, but also he has the unlimited resources to protect himself against any government persecution. The little donors are the ones who need to fear. Those people who may have made enemies of the appropriators would certainly have been targets. It could also be people who finished with higher grade point averages in school, people who got the contract on the house they were trying to buy. Life would have been very interesting.

Fortunately for all Americans the Senate, the sole surviving voice of reason within the federal government, saw this language. When questioned, the House leaders stated the language was merely a standard oversight provision. So the House passed it without further question. Not hard given most Members were out of town, it was a weekend and night had already come. It is unlikely to have gone unnoticed during the cold light of day.

When the bill came to the Senate, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) took issue with the House “oversight” language. The House managers stated the language had been available for more than a week; if the Senate had a problem with it they should have said something earlier, before finalizing the conference report. Now, after the Senate has unanimously struck the language from the bill, the House Appropriation’s Subcommittee Chairman with oversight of the IRS, Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) is now claiming no knowledge of the language. The New York Times covered the issue in today’s paper.

Are the Republican Members of the House committee simply too busy and uninvolved to actually read their own legislation? Are they covering their attempt to raid the cookie jar? The potential answers are disturbing. A single political party now controls government. Americans need to be ever more vigilant.