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No reason to believe real reform happened at IRS

Just one Internal Revenue Service official lost her job over harassment of non-profit organizations for political reasons, to our knowledge. That was Lois Lerner, who was not fired but instead retired.

But the agency has taken “significant actions” to prevent such political use of the tax agency, a report issued last week claims.

Conservative groups including those with links to the tea party movement were singled out for special attention, including delays in processing applications for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 election seasons. According to an inspector general’s report, 296 groups were targeted by the IRS division Lerner supervised at one time.

Questions about precisely what happened linger, though it is known President Barack Obama was not being candid when he initially blamed the scandal on lower-level IRS employees. It is unlikely the full truth will ever come out because of the “accidental” loss of about 6,000 of Lerner’s emails.

But the agency claims it has resolved the problem.

Again, to our knowledge no one lost an IRS job because of the scandal. But that is typical of “reform” in Washington – and reason to doubt political hacks at the tax agency have really changed their ways.

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