On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 21:33:31 GMT, Bob Noel
wrote in Message-Id:
:

In article ,
(Teacherjh) wrote:


So you feel that the Bush administration has fostered a
Fear-Your-Government ambiance among this nation's (USA) citizenry?


Well, the administration has cultivated an ambiance where "fear your
government" is a reasonable reaction.

hardly reasonable. just consider how long people have had
complete faith/trust in the IRS.



It appears that it was the Clinton administration that actually did
something about the IRS:


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T A X E S

Lone Ranger at the IRS

New Commissioner Rossotti is making his mark

By MICHAEL HIRSH

Imagine TAKING OVER AS SKIPPER of the Exxon Valdez--just as it's about
to run aground. For Charles O. Rossotti, running the Internal Revenue
Service has been a little like that. The former management-systems
whiz came on board as IRS commissioner in the face of the fiercest
congressional and public criticism the agency has faced in decades--
widespread allegations of systemic corruption and abuse of taxpayers.
The worst of the storm has passed. But Rossotti's been bailing water
ever since he was sworn in on Nov. 13, and early signs are that he's
begun to rid the agency of some of its alleged excesses.

Last week the IRS announced that, in Rossotti's first major move, he
is requiring directors of the agency's 33 districts nationwide to
personally approve any seizure of people's homes, their contents or
"perishable goods" in delinquent tax cases; any other seizures must be
approved by the top-level collection chief. Rossotti called it "a
prudent step... to ensure that corection-enforcernent tools are only
used in appropriate cases." IRS critics -who are legion now in
Washington-applauded. "Ifs a big deal," says former commissioner Fred
Goldberg. "I think he clearly gets it."

Rossotti gets it, all right: he concedes he'll need "the better part
of a decade" to truly reform the IRS. Perhaps that's why he is
starting out small, directing his attention to troubled districts like
Arkansas-Oklahoma. The two-state district was the subject of hearings
held in Oklahoma City last week by Sen. Don Nickles (Republican of
Oklahoma), who looked into allegations of undue pressures on IRS
officers to perform property seizures and close cases prematurely, all
to beef up their managers' ratings. An internal audit released to the
Senate Finance Committee on Friday finds the Oklahoma office operated
"without an appropriate emphasis on quality and customer-service
issues," according to Dale Hart, the region's compliance chief.
("Quality" is IRS bureau- speak for "treating taxpayers right.")

Personnel changes quickly followed the Oklahoma City probe. Kenneth
Sawyer, the district director, retired Nov. 30, and the agency brought
in an outside director to replace him. NEWSWEEK has also learned that
the district's collection chief, Ronald James, who was suspended Sept.
25, has been detailed to a new post outside of the Arkansas-Oklahoma
district.

Still, as Rossotti is discovering, the problem is not so much
individual IRS managers as the system that molds them. The Oklahoma
City findings tell a larger tale of how the agency's managers became
obsessed with production stats that tended to treat taxpayers like
numbers, not people, as the IRS came under intense congressional
pressure, especially in the small-government '80s, to show more
efficiency. Sawyer, in a 1989 internal memo obtained by NEWSWEEK,
complained that the district's "emphases on quality improvement has
.... impacted adversely on productively." He wrote of pushing hard "to
improve our relative standing." In an interview, Sawyer denied that
he ever wrongly emphasized production. Asked to explain his abrupt
departure, he said, "I could have retired four years ago. I've had
enough." James did not return calls.

Such production zeal was not unique to Oklahoma City. The agency's
voracious appetite for stats has also inspired bizarre shell games
between its two main divisions, Exams (audits) and Collections,
nationwide. Collections, for instance, will summarily close thousands
of delinquent accounts-often from bankrupt taxpayers-to make its books
look good. Then it sends them over to Exams, which keeps them on file,
automatically calculating cost-of-living, interest and penalty charges
each year-unbenownst to the taxpayer, who thinks the IRS has dropped
his case. When he gets back on his feet, he often finds himself
suddenly assessed with a huge amount he can't pay. His file goes back
to Collections, which then logs him as a new case. "That's what most
of that $200 billion in uncollected taxes a year amounts to," says one
IRS manager. "Most of it isn't really even owed." By the end of the
month, the IRS is expected to complete a national audit of the misuse
of statistics in evaluating employees-and early reports are that at
least six districts will be found culpable. 'I don't believe anybody
in the IRS now thinks those measures can remain the same," says Robert
Tobias, president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

The Oklahoma City case also shows how when complaints arise, problem
managers are shuffled around to posts in different districts, often
without a reprimand. "Generally they let the water cool, then slip 'em
back into their old jobs," says Dave Martino, an executive with the
NTEU. "That's the way it works in this organization." That's where
Rossotti will need help from Congress. Sometime next spring the
Senate is expected to approve a bill to revamp the IRS that will,
likely give Rossotti greater hire-and-fire powers, and create an
independent oversight board to back his reforms. "You can't just have
a Lone Ranger pushing this agency into shape," says Jeffrey Trinka,
former executive director of the bipartisan IRS restructuring
commission. Perhaps not. And Rossotti's clearly not riding into the
sunset any time soon.

PP 42
NEWSWEEK
DECEMBER 15, 1997

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