A mismanaged war, botched hurricane relief, illegal wiretaps, secret torture prisons, ethics violations. Just when I thought we had seen the worst from the Bush Administration, there is a new outrage that is down-right mean-spirited.
Big tax evaders -- mostly wealthy individuals and large corporations -- cost the government $300 billion each year in unpaid taxes. But in George Bush's America, these folks are getting off virtually scot-free.
The Internal Revenue Service is spending its limited enforcement resources on low-income taxpayers -- most of whom did nothing wrong. The IRS froze more than 120,000 taxpayers' refunds on suspicion of fraud without notifying the taxpayers or giving them a chance to respond.
The targeted taxpayers had a median income of $12,000 to $14,000. Many of them claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit, and count on their tax refunds to pay for home heating costs, school books for their kids, or to open a bank account and begin to build savings. The IRS has been holding up the refunds for an average of eight months -- but some people wait for years.
We've heard a lot over the years about racial profiling. Now it seems the Bush Administration has invented "poverty profiling." It's the cruel assumption that if you are poor, you must also be a tax cheat. Remember your vote has consequences.
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