The Issue: White House satisfaction with IRS officials who declined to answer questions before Congress.
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The editorial listing the recent denials and deflections from Internal Revenue Service officials is a compelling example of this administration’s refusal to take responsibility for its erring ways (“IRS’s Happy Returns,” Editorial, May 30).
Rationalization, minimization, deflection, denial and delusion are all symptoms of the same disease, which seems to afflict so many in Washington today.
Attorney General Eric Holder, IRS officials Lois Lerner, Steven Miller and Douglas Shulman, not to mention White House spokesman Jay Carney and, disappointingly, the president himself appear incapable of explaining the IRS fiasco, or else admitting their part in it.
Worse, this seems to be a communicable disease, seeing as the nation still has no answers about the Benghazi attack and the Fox News fiasco, either.
Marcio Moreira
Chatham, NJ
Lerner’s denial of any culpability in her conduct leading up to the IRS scandal is not necessarily an effort to lie but, rather, evidence that, in her perverted concept of right and wrong, she actually believes she did nothing wrong.
Jerome Levenberg
Cedarhurst
While the scandal with the IRS targeting conservative and Tea Party groups continues in the news, it should be pointed out what a disgrace it is to target conservatives like this just for their beliefs. With each developing scandal, the picture of an arrogant administration abusing its power grows clearer.
The IRS is feared, loathed and resented. Thus it tends to attract workers who are insensitive to the needs and problems of others. Some even enjoy being bullies. The tax code is so complex that no individual can understand it, including those who work for the IRS.
The individuals in the IRS responsible for this criminal conduct need to be called to justice and punished for these misdeeds.
I have been targeted recently by the IRS because of my conservative views, Tea Party associations and letter-writing.
The IRS prefers to ask questions, but not to answer them.
Al Eisner
Silver Spring, Md.