Monday, May 20, 2013

On the tax collectors OR Luke 19 can't get here soon enough!

I confess, the IRS scandal is only making it more and more amazing that Jesus was so gracious toward the IRS agents of his day. But we should remember that, in the instructive case of Zacchaeus (the "wee, little man"), Jesus said, "salvation has come to this house, for he too is a son of Abraham," in direct response to the tax man's repentant resolution: “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” (Luke 19:8-9)

Meanwhile, if you need to catch up on this story, tax professor Paul Caron is serving as primary aggregator.

Another law prof, William Jacobson has collected key links (fewer to sort through) at Legal Insurrection.

Among them, Kim Strassel's article demonstrates how open and public has been the process of authorizing the ideological targeting of conservative groups and taxpayers for intimidation, audits, delays in granting tax-exempt status, etc. No smoking gun needed. Nevertheless, ... 

Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator appears to have detected the smoking gun itself. Read the whole thing, but here is the rub:
"... it will be a curious sight indeed to see the efforts the media will go to ignore/dismiss the tight, on-the-record connection between the President personally and a vociferously anti-Tea Party union. A union that has the literal run of the IRS — and whose union chief is recorded as having met with the President in the White House the day before the IRS launched “a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases.”
It not only looks bad, it is bad, coming or going, covert or overt, before and after the election, which ever way you slice it. Time for the tax collectors — and the chief executive who "sets the tone" — to take a page from Zacchaeus, the wee, little man.

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