When you start out working on a jigsaw puzzle, the scattered pieces in no way resemble the picture it is to become. But as the pieces are fitted together, certain parts of it become recognizable objects and finally, as the last pieces are being added, the whole picture begins to make sense.
Our nation is going through a transition much like that of a jigsaw puzzle being assembled. In the last two months particularly, the puzzle pieces have seemingly come out of nowhere, hidden in a corner of the assembly table for the last four years. Of course they weren’t really hidden but were very clear to those willing to look at them. This collection of “scandals” are now starting to fit into the overall picture, all part of a mindset that has become pervasive across our nation and all pointing to an abuse of power.
While most of us don’t really like a portion of our paychecks going toward income tax, we accept that it is something we have to live with. The individual IRS official, the “tax collector,” if you will, has never really been the problem to us. They’re just doing their job. It’s when the government misuses our hard-earned money that we have a problem.
Aside from a ten-year income tax created during the Civil War to help pay for war expenses, and an attempt in 1892 to reinstitute it until it was struck down by the Supreme Court, it wasn’t until 1913, when the 16th Amendment to the Constitutional was passed, that the income tax became a permanent part of our federal government. After 100 years, though, this is the first time that the IRS as a whole has had to deal with the label of “scandal.”
At first, individual IRS employees were pointed out as being the problem, an accusation that was much like a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that looked like it belonged until it was attempted to be connected to the other puzzle piece. Something didn’t fit, and we are now finding out that it’s much more than two IRS employees in Cincinnati. It is a problem that is endemic to the IRS as a whole, targeting those where were seen as opponents to the President’s agenda.
Somehow, when organizations were applying for tax-exempt status, if keywords such as Tea Party, freedom, or liberty appeared in the name of the organization, the IRS would make it extremely difficult for them to gain tax-exempt status. And if they were approved, it took as much as a year or two to be approved, compared to the normal process of being approved or not being approved in weeks or a few months.
We are starting to see a jigsaw puzzle take shape as a picture we can recognize. And the IRS scandal is only a small part of the jigsaw puzzle picture.
