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| U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement about the Internal Revenue Service in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 2013. |
As he announced the forced resignation of his top tax collector
Wednesday, President Obama seemed to find a silver lining on the scandal
engulfing the Internal Revenue Service. “The good news,” he said, “is
it’s fixable.”
A day later, the White House seemed determined to continue radiating
the same confidence. At midday, Obama appeared again before his press
corps, saying variations of the word “fix” five more times in relation
to the IRS mess. Hours later, the Treasury Department announced a
replacement for the top job at the IRS, Danny Werfel, a well-respected
technocrat who has worked for both Republican and Democratic
administrations. And another senior IRS official, Joseph Grant, who
recently oversaw the troubled unit that mishandled nonprofit
applications, had announced his retirement.
But the prospect of a clean or quick resolution to the scandal seemed
no closer, especially with a drip of more revelations expected in the
coming days and weeks, and the uncertainty of a criminal investigation
looming.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans made clear that they will not be rushed
in their investigations, and that they intended to attempt to broaden
the scandal in an effort to hamper the roll out of the 2010 healthcare
reform law, called Obamacare, which will require substantive new oversight by the IRS. ABC News
named Sarah Hall Ingram, a bureaucrat now charged with implementing
Obamacare enforcement at the IRS, as the person in charge of the office
that oversaw tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012, during the
worst documented abuses.
“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,”
said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a former chairman of the National
Republican Senatorial Committee, in a statement. “After the events of
last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or
taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.” He introduced a bill that
would bar the IRS from enforcing any part of the new health insurance
law, a symbolic measure that has little hope of passage.
On the other side of the Capitol, House Ways and Means Committee also
finished preparations for the first of many public hearings on the IRS
mishandling of applications by conservative nonprofits. Chairman Dave
Camp, a Michigan Republican, made it clear that he had no intention of
pushing towards a quick resolution. “There are still far too many
unanswered questions and until we know what truly happened, we cannot
fully fix what is wrong,” Camp said. Friday’s hearings were expected to
take testimony both from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General,
who has investigated the misdeeds at the IRS, and the current acting
director of the IRS, Steve Miller, who was forced to resign on
Wednesday.
Miller’s replacement, Werfel, has served as the controller of the
Office of Management and Budget, where he oversaw Obama Administration
preparations for the implementation of the sequester. He also served as a
civil service employee in the same office for President George W. Bush.
“He is an immensely talented and dedicated public servant who has ably
served presidents of both parties,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in
a statement. “Danny has a strong record of raising his hand for — and
excelling at — tough management assignments.”
Those talents will be required in the coming months. Not only will
Werfel be forced to push reforms for the massive agency, which has long
been troubled and where improvements have been difficult to enact. But
he will have to juggle ongoing criminal and congressional
investigations, while working in an environment beset by conflicting
political pressures. The President’s “good news” scenario may come to
pass, but it is unlikely to occur anytime soon.
Sources :
http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/17/despite-president-obamas-optimism-no-quick-fix-likely-for-irs/
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