As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the IRS, said the practice was an “outrageous violation of the public trust” that could undermine the agency’s credibility.
IRS officials acknowledged that party affiliation information was routinely collected by a vendor for several months. They told the vendor last month to screen the information out.
“The bottom line is that we have never used this information,” said John Lipold, an IRS spokesman. “There are strict laws in place that forbid it.”
Well, as always, that makes me feel so much safer.
Via Big Brass Blog.
And yes, I know we should be blogging our little socks off with Alito and Abramoff and all kinds of things. Guess what kiddies? It's the first week of school. At least for me, blogging takes a back seat for a few days, unless I feel pissy late at night and need to do some cussing. Mil perdones.
Posted by binky at January 10, 2006 12:58 PM | TrackBack | Posted to You Can't Make This Stuff Up