The Dream, 43 Years Later - Page 2

And yes, sometimes that complexity does lend itself to abuse by recipients. But not to the degree that would justify recent Internal Revenue Service efforts to limit refunds based on the credit.

The extent of IRS efforts was made appallingly clear last week when the agency’s own Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson, told Congress that IRS criminal investigators devoted vastly more resources to pursing questionable refunds by the poor than to investigating underreported incomes from small businesses. The amount of these filers’ EITC credits in dispute: $9 billion. The money lost by unpaid business taxes: $100 billion.

During the process, the IRS froze the refunds and didn’t tell the taxpayers, whose average income was $13,000, that they were suspected of fraud. Ultimately, as noted in Olson’s annual report, two-thirds of the taxpayers who had their EITC-related refunds held were found to qualify for the amounts they claimed or even more.

Why did the government spend its time and money investigating the poorest segment of the population for a substantially smaller tax amount? Could it be that it’s easier to go after those less equipped, both financially and educationally, to defend themselves? Yeah, that’s a lot of progress down the road for social equality and justice in 2006, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, lawmakers continue to grant tax cuts to wealthier Americans while cutting programs and services designed to assist the poorer of our citizenry. Heck, even the middle-class must wait for expiring tax relief to be revived while still-in-place tax breaks for high-income earners get attention first.

On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. King told the crowd on the Washington Mall that, “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’”

Take a few minutes to listen again to all of his words. You can find the text and an audio link here.

And today, if on no other day this year, at least consider which way that stream is flowing.

Article Author: Kay Bell

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