IRS Audits: No Joking Matter

Was it President Barack Milhous Obama who spoke at Arizona State University’s commencement on May 13? Referring to the controversy created by ASU’s refusal to give him an honorary doctorate because he had not achieved enough in his life, Obama said:

Now, before I begin, I’d like to clear the air about that little controversy everyone was talking about a few weeks back. I have to tell you, I really thought it was much ado about nothing, although I think we all learned an important lesson. I learned to never again pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA bracket. And your university President and Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.

[You'll find it in the YouTube video at about 3 minutes 10 seconds]

Shades of Richard Nixon!

Some have pointed out that federal law prohibits IRS employees from threatening to audit a taxpayer – at least if the threat is “for the purpose of extracting personal gain or benefit.” Few would suggest Obama was doing anything more than making a somewhat lame joke. So it’s not the joke itself that raises concerns.

Obama’s attempt at humor earned him a blistering rebuke in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece by Glenn Harlan Reynold, a law professor at the University of Tennessee and the author of Instapundit, a political blog.

Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it’s hard to see the humor. Surely he’s aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.

Our income-tax system is based on voluntary compliance and honest reporting by citizens. It couldn’t possibly function if most people decided to cheat. Sure, the system is backed up by the dreaded IRS audit. … If [the income tax system] comes instead to be seen as “just politics” then the moral component of the system will be gone. For the system to work, people have to believe that it is fundamentally fair.

Of course, the Obama administration has seemed to work very hard to create an impression that voluntary compliance is not important – well, not important so long as you’re not one of Leona Helmsley’s little people.

Professor Reynold concludes his opinion piece by suggesting that Obama doesn’t seem to appreciate the role of moral capital in our society.

As he looks for ways to pay for the spending campaign he’s already embarked upon, he’d be well-advised to avoid comments that undercut the very tax system he’ll be depending on.

Amen!

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