Analysis: The IRS as Microcosm

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The New Media Journal:

Analysis: The IRS as Microcosm

Witnessseth.com

The controversy swirling around the alleged IRS targeting of conservative groups has placed severe scrutiny on that agency. Much of the coverage of the controversy (exhaustively catalogued here) has centered on the IRS specifically, with the disagreement centering primarily on the scope and depth of the wrongdoing. Was the targeting the result of "a few bad apples" or did the activities result from directives issued from senior levels in the hierarchy?

 

A common theme in the coverage is the perception of an ideological or political bias with the IRS as an agency. One direction stories have taken is to look at the political contributions of IRS employees in an attempt to establish the partisanship of the IRS as an agency. One story reported a four-to-one ratio of Obama contributors to Romney contributors among IRS employees, with the implication that this lopsided partisanship is evidence of a more systematic aspect to the targeting.

 

To get a better idea about the partisan mix of the policy-making aspect of the agency, I decided to examine the contributions of an arguably more relevant group of employees -- the lawyers -- within the IRS and other government agencies.

 

The results for the IRS were striking. Of the IRS lawyers who made contributions in the 2012 election, 95% contributed to Obama rather than to Romney. So among IRS lawyers, the ratio of Obama contributors to Romney contributors was not merely 4-to-1 at previously reported, but more like 20-to-1. The ratio of funds to Obama was even more lopsided, with about 32 times as much money going to Obama as to Romney from IRS lawyers.