sympathy for the devils

One of the current political trumped-up "scandals" has to do with the I.R.S. theoretically targeting right-wing "tea party" organizations that were probably abusing the IRS Section 501 (c)(4) regulations.

The hubbub has, predictably, generated a bunch of general IRS-bashing from Congress, the same people who pass the often-ridiculous laws that the IRS is supposed to be enforcing.  Everybody of course hates the evil behemoth that the IRS image conjures, so politically this always makes good press for short-sighted Congresspeople who mostly don't want their donors audited or questioned by examiners.

But, speaking from my perspective of dealing with IRS employees now and then, I'm aware that, because of budget cutbacks, the IRS is amazingly understaffed and underfunded now, which doesn't make sense if Congress wants them to do their job effectively.  I certainly wouldn't want to be an IRS employee -- it would be a total "lose-lose" proposition.