Republican IRS agent says Cincinnati began 'Tea Party' inquiries

[DallasNE]

22. I Saw An Interesting Exchange

It was between a Democratic Congressman and the new acting Director of the IRS. The subject was the language of the law and the Congressman wanted to know why the language in the law that says "exclusive" is not being used. The Director explained that they are bound by the revision made in 1959 that "clarified" that to "substantial" (or whatever the exact word is) but the Congressman was not dissuaded. He shot back that he knows that is what the IRS is doing today but insisted that the will of the Congress was that it should be exclusive and that I want to know as a Congressman why the actual language of the law is not being followed. The squirming Director mumbled something to the effect that they would look into it. This has now gone all of the way to the top so it can no longer be ignored. It will be interesting to see the lawyerly wording the IRS provides this Congressman. Given that law has a very defined hierarchy it will be tough for them to find a way around the actual language in the law -- but never underestimate the ability of a lawyer to parse language in a way that cannot be understood by lay people. It does sometime depend on what the meaning of "is" is.