WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Mike Lee released the following statement on the IRS scandal involving the targeting of certain conservative organizations: 

“It would be a mistake for Republicans to view the latest IRS scandal as a typical partisan squabble between political parties.  The real lesson is that our massive federal government bureaucracy is inherently dysfunctional, corrupt, and intolerant regardless of who is in charge.

“The IRS is a powerful agency that can influence nearly every decision Americans make through its authority to tax and regulate.  It is one of the primary beneficiaries of our out-of-control spending and runaway debt. Organizations and individuals that promote fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, greater government accountability, and more local autonomy present a threat to the federal expansion that gives the IRS its power.  It should not come as a surprise, then, that the culture of the IRS would promote enhanced scrutiny of these groups.

“At its core, the IRS scandal is not the result of one political party attacking another. It is the inevitable consequence of a federal government that has gotten too big and too expensive to control.  When an agency like the IRS can single out Tea Party groups; or the Department of Justice can monitor reporters’ conversations; or HHS regulators can openly extort the regulated; and there are no consequences – we are no longer citizens but subjects. 

“While it is important we get answers about how and why these groups were targeted by the IRS, firing a few employees will not solve the problem.  The long-term solution is for the American people to demand that government be less involved, less intrusive, and therefore less able to carry out these kinds of abuses.”