Defending Free Speech

The Washington Examiner is reporting today that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch has asked Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen not to change the Internal Revenue Service’s rules regarding political speech by nonprofit organizations.

The article quotes Senator Hatch:

“The IRS is just beginning to recover its reputation, and your agency is just beginning to regain trust from lawmakers,” Hatch wrote to Koskinen. “Do not throw all of that away in a quixotic and bizarre mission to regulate the political activity of Americans.”

Hatch said Congress will “have no choice” but to investigate the agency’s motivations if it issues the rules, claiming that it would be viewed as an act of political bias. He asked Koskinen to preserve all communications related to the rulemaking, in case the Obama White House or Treasury Department is playing a role in shaping it.

The IRS is not supposed to be a political organization. Unfortunately under President Obama it has become one. It would be nice to have an IRS Commissioner who would uphold the political neutrality of the IRS. Evidently John Koskinen is not that person.