A Fox In Another Henhouse

(re: another Bush crony in a position of high responsibility...)

If you don’t know who Mark Everson is, you should, especially this time of year. Everson is the IRS commissioner who wants to allow third parties access to our tax data.

Why this is something that would be considered at all is a total mystery to me. As far as I’m concerned, our tax data is something that should NEVER be accessed by ANYONE except the IRS, especially with fraud and identity theft such a concern in our digital age.

I contacted Arlen Specter’s office some time ago and told him that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES do I want any third party accessing my data. And just to show you how steamed I was, I actually contacted Rick “Man On Dog” Santorum and told him the same thing (and for good measure, I communicated my displeasure to little Mikey Fitzpatrick also).

So what did Everson do before he got his commish job under Dubya? Well, according to the information available here:

Most recently, Mark Everson served as the Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget. Prior to that, he was the Controller of the Office of Management and Budget.

OK, that’s not too bad. And going back even further…

Previously, he was Vice President for Finance and Controller for LSG Sky Chefs in Arlington, Texas. From 1988 to 1998, he held several positions with the Pechiney Group, including Senior Vice President and Controller in Paris, France.

LSG Sky Chefs, by the way, is a company that pursues “culinary excellence in airline catering,” and the Pechiney Group’s two core businesses, according to their web site, are aluminum and packaging.

We always knew Dubya is a “private sector” kind of guy, but just for once, I’d like to see someone in his administration who has worked in federal government for more than ten years in one department and has acquired somewhat of an understanding to know how it actually works. Everson also worked for the INS and the U.S. Information Agency.

OK, so I wouldn’t even be mentioning him unless there were issues, right?

Uh huh (as noted here)…

Despite the congressional mandate not to close any of its Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) during the 2006 tax-filing season, the IRS apparently is continuing to consider such closings as a cost-cutting measure, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said.

And (via Atrios)…

Yesterday (3/29?06), Congressman Steve Rothman (D-NJ) blasted Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Mark Everson on his agency's decision to task private firms with collecting taxes instead of using federal employees to do the job. Taxpayers will lose as much as $35 million dollars a year paying expensive commissions charged by the private tax collection agencies and lose additional money spent on preventing fraud at the firms.

(By the way, take another look at Everson’s photo in the bio from the Progressive Government link. Do I detect a hint of yet another smirk? Must be a Texas thing…).

My sincerest hope is that none of us are audited by Mark Everson's IRS, but if somehow that awful event happens, just grit your teeth and chalk it up to another instance of the “have-nots” getting hosed under Bushco and this blight of a presidency. May we all get through this period and do our very best to make sure we never have to endure anything like this ever again.