Did you know there are reasons to love the IRS? Liberal L.A. Times writer Doyle McManus thinks so. It was actually quite fitting that his commentary was published on April Fools’ Day.

It would be difficult to miss the irony.

Here are some of McManus’ “cogent facts:”

* “The IRS is becoming something of a model of efficiency among Washington’s bureaucracies;”

* Each year’s collections top prior years with less spent in the process;

* At the end of 2015, IRS payroll will be 14 percent smaller (13,000 people) than 2010;

* IRS claims a $385 billion “tax gap” in 2006 which translates to $448 billion in 2015 dollars;

* If they could just get that money; the U.S. deficit could be “nearly” erased;

In a nutshell, the article’s focus is those harmful, malicious Republicans; it’s entirely their fault.

* “The IRS is a whipping boy for Republicans.” They’ve cut the agency’s budget four consecutive years;

* The IRS’s targeting Tea Party groups is merely “one incident.” It is but a “flap;”

* Investigations into that scandal “traced to mid-level incompetence – not White House scheming;”

* “They’re still complaining about the IRS’ infamous $4 million management conference in Las Vegas;

* Vegas was merely “an excess that happened five years and three commissioners ago.”
In other words, “what difference does it make?”

As predictable, McManus forgot a few real facts.

Lois Lerner was no mid-level employee. She had a high-ranking level to say who got nonprofit status and who didn’t. She received large bonuses in addition to her overpaid salary; produced zero documents; claimed innocence and then claimed her 5th Amendment rights; took months off with full pay then retired with all of her perks intact.

No one person involved in the illegal targeting of certain groups and the release of private personal taxpayer information, including that of conservative donors, to the Justice Department has been fired. Even now-Commissioner Koskinen, “turnaround specialist,” lied to a congressional committee.

He said there were no emails of Lerner’s or others. Unfortunately for real taxpayers, he still has a job and he’s not in jail since the discovery of tens of thousands of them with language that clearly told of the depth of Lerner’s hate for conservatives.

McManus also failed to mention that federal employees and retirees alone owe $3.5 billion as of 2014, and the amount increases every year.

HNGN reported March 15: “In the House of Representatives, more than 500 employees, about 5 percent, owed $6.7 million in back taxes. Government employees and retirees owed $3.54 billion in unpaid taxes last year, $220 million more than in 2013, according to the most recent IRS data. In the Senate, 220 workers, or 3.5 percent, owed the IRS about $2 million.”

Gee, it isn’t like the feds have access to paychecks or anything.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. His committee just recently passed the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2015. Don’t get too excited; it weakly addresses back taxes from deadbeat employees by giving agencies the authority to fire these losers (none so far). Second, applicants for new employment have to submit proof they aren’t delinquent in their taxes.

No thanks; I’d rather see the money.

Mr. McManus, perhaps Republicans are trying to send a message that if IRS departments have time to email sarcastic comments about conservatives, have time to ferret out conservative groups and have time to act illegally in specifically searching and providing personal information to another undue agency for nefarious purposes, then it seems crystal clear Commissioner Koskinen doesn’t need “more,” he simply needs “better.”

That is a perfect project for the “turnaround specialist.”

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety.