Thoughts for Tax Day

Good article by E.J. Dionne in today's Washington Post. Dionne points out that, as much as we all dislike paying taxes, we should recognize that the IRS performs a vital function that provides the finances for our military troops, health and safety functions, and all the other positive things that government provides.

That's why it's particularly reprehensible that some politicians essentially condone or excuse terrorist attacks on the IRS, such as that of Joseph Stack, who flew an airplane into a building housing IRS offices. As Dionne observes, Representative Steve King said, "I think if we had abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn't have had a target for his airplane. . . . It's sad that the incident happened down in Texas, but by the same token, the IRS is an agency that's unnecessary."

Similarly, Senator Scott Brown's comments on the incident noted that it was tragic, but went on to say, "I don't know if it's related, but I can just sense not only in my election, but since being here in Washington, people are frustrated. They want transparency, they want their elected officials to be accountable and open and talk about the things that are affecting their daily lives. So I'm not sure that there's a connection, I certainly hope not. But we need to do things better."

You know, after 9/11, if anyone suggested that U.S. foreign policy or other U.S. actions might have played some role in motivating the attacks, they were blasted as terrorist sympathizers. Here we have a rather similar terrorist attack -- another suicide flight of a plane into a building(fortunately, on a smaller scale). It seems rather incredible that a politician's comment would be that "people are frustrated" and that "we need to do things better." How about, "that man was a horrible criminal and such actions can never be remotely justified"?