THEY DON’T MAKE ‘EM LIKE THEY USED TO …
Rest in peace, Johnnie Walters …
Wait … who is (or was) Johnnie Walters?
Glad you asked: During the 1970s, this Greenville, S.C. native served as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under former president Richard Nixon.
He was the guy who – in September 1972 – was handed an envelope from White House counsel John Dean containing a list of 200 people the Nixon administration wanted the IRS to investigate.
He refused to do so …
Not long before he died, Walters was interviewed by Gannett about the mushrooming scandal hanging over current U.S. President Barack Obama’s IRS.
“I’m distressed at what’s happening and particularly with IRS,” Walters said. “IRS must be run nonpolitical. Our tax system otherwise will fail and we can’t afford that.”
Amen to that …
In fact, better yet, let’s abolish this agency altogether and empower our economy by implementing a flat, fair consumption-based tax – one earmarked explicitly for core functions of government.
In the meantime, though … government needs more Johnnie Walters (and fewer Lois Lerners).
13 comments
Amen to that! He was a good man who leaves with us a great legacy.
Start the discussion by articulating exactly what are the “core functions of government” in today’s society?.
For example,when the Constitution was written, the automobile did not exist? Is regulating seat belt wearing and texting while driving a core function? Also, is it a core function to build an Interstate Highway System?
Technological advances require that ” core functions of government” be periodically evaluated against changes in technology, because technology allows more people to be injured and imposed upon faster and on a much wider scale than before.
Oops. To many wrong punctuation marks (“?”) above.
Those can be remedied by clicking on the “Edit” button, located under your post.
I was surprised to learn that if you are logged in as a guest, without giving your email, you have no edit privileges.
Oh, I wasn’t aware of that, euwe max. Thank you for enlightening me on that quirk in the system!
Is your point there was no IRS when the Constitution was written?
but there were taxes. and it s pretty good question. i suspect what Will means when he says ‘core functions’ is really ‘anything that i need’ and frivolous waste is really “stuff i don’t need, or will not need until i turn 65.
The most core function of government since the days of Rome has been building and maintaining ROADS.
But, that came to a grinding halt in this country when these idiot legislators started signing Grover Norquist’s pledge.
it seems lost in the bullshit nonsense around Lerner that the various groups applying for tax exempt status were lying and she was correct to deny them. and now those groups have achieved fraudulent tax exempt status status through political intimidation. nobody believes for a moment – not even rupert murdoch believes that karl roves groups are not purely political operations.
Oh, you mean lying about their political activities like every black church I’ve ever known of?!… oops, I’m sorry, they’re black and they’re Democrats, thus, they get a pass…
Not just the Black churches. Plenty of white ones do it, also. Any church engaging in political activity should lose its tax exempt status for a minimum of five years following any verifiable evidence of such.
When you’re driving down the highway at night
And you’re feeling that Wild Turkey’s bite
Don’t give Johnny Walters a ride
Cause Jack Black is right by your side
You might get taken to the jailhouse and find
You’ve been arrested for driving while blind