The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ‘trust’ as an “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” Trust is mutual. It must be earned. Once earned, it must be vigilantly guarded and constantly maintained.
Today, the American people do not trust their government. In a 2013 Gallup poll, a historic 81 percent of Americans stated they feel they can trust government to do what is right “only some of the time or never.” I don’t blame them. Today when Americans turn on their televisions, they can hardly escape coverage of Executive Branch agencies run amok, riddled with incompetence, and desperately backpedaling in an attempt to cover their tracks.
The IRS is suffering from a deficit of trust with the American people. This agency participated in a systematic and deliberate targeting of conservative organizations in the lead-up to the 2012 elections, a chilling revelation in a country whose very fabric is woven with the freedom of speech and assembly. Since admitting to this wrongdoing, they have peddled falsehoods to the American people, claiming they ‘lost’ sensitive emails from Lois Lerner and other key IRS employees in a highly suspect computer crash.
As the Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman, I am responsible for working closely with the IRS to lead the congressional investigation of the agency and ensure the American people are protected from overreach. The IRS wields incredible power over the American people, possessing the ability with a single phone call or letter to turn the world of any family, senior, veteran, or small business owner upside down. However, the agency has displayed incredible arrogance by demanding strict and total compliance from the American people on the one hand, while on the other refusing to cooperate with our investigation.
On Friday, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen appeared before the Ways & Means Committee to answer for the agency’s latest debacle. The agency chose to notify our committee of the lost emails on page 15 of a 27-page letter, and only after we asked were we notified of the additional employees whose emails were lost. The IRS knew of this issue in February, but failed to notify Congress and the public until June. The Commissioner not only refused to apologize, he offered a full throated defense of the agency’s behavior throughout this investigation. Unfortunately, he couldn’t answer the simple question: what took you so long to let Congress know?
This just doesn’t pass the smell test. No reasonable person can be expected to believe the Commissioner when he emphatically exclaims before our committee that the IRS has done everything possible to be forthcoming in this investigation. The truth is very much the opposite. The IRS has attempted to cover its tracks, throw Congress off the scent, and in the process, deny the American people the truth and justice they deserve.
The other side likes to call our pursuit of the truth a politically-motivated witch hunt. But this investigation is so much more than that. Americans have the right to live without fear of government retribution for their political beliefs. A breach of these rights is a very serious matter. What the IRS did is unconstitutional and un-American. What they are doing now by stonewalling our investigation and refusing to be forthcoming flies in the face of the spirit of the Constitution, which tasks Congress with oversight of the Executive Branch. It belies a dangerous politicization of the oversight process contrary to the Founding Fathers’ vision of checks and balances.
We won’t give up. As Chairman of the Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee, I have a responsibility to be dogged and unrelenting in pursuit of the truth. This isn’t a partisan political issue, it’s an American issue. We won’t let the administration silence those they don’t agree with, and we won’t stop demanding answers. We are united, determined, and most importantly, we are right. Wherever the truth leads us, we will keep fighting for the rights of the American people, because I believe the very foundational principles of our government depend on it.
