Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller was already having a rough day at the House Ways and Means Committee when one particularly hot question shoved him into the lower depths of a church-state inferno.
The question concerned a letter sent by IRS officials in Cincinnati to the Coalition for Life of Iowa, linked to its application for tax-exempt status.
“Please explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood, are considered educational,” said the letter, which was released by the Thomas More Society, which often defends traditional religious groups.
The problem is that it is intertwined. But there are two problems:
1. The IRS clearly target conservative groups and ignored equally situated liberal/progressive groups. It is the corruption of using supposedly neutral bureaucrats to target political enemys.
2. The other is the tax code itself that allows the government to parcel out tax benefits to groups it likes. The 15th amendment should be repealed and taxes levied solely for the purpose of raising revenue. No tax should be levied or exemption granted in order to encourage or discourage the behavior of citizens.