A Senatorial Hissy-Fit About TE/GE
I looked up the etymology of “hissy-fit.” Because that is what occurred to me while reading a letter written to Danny Werfel last week by five Republican Senators. As a younger man, I once told my wife to stop throwing a hissy fit and you better know she gave me what for. When used in conversation with women the word belittles and denigrate her complaint, whether legitimate or not. And when used in conversation with men, it denigrates his manhood by suggesting that he is acting like a woman whose complaint, legitimate or not, deserves belittling denigration. It’s like telling a man that he has his panties in a knot over something. Insulting to everyone all at the same time.
But the word has an etymology that makes sense if you strip away the sociological insult. “Hissy” is southern dialect for “hysterical” and “fit” refers to a tantrum in that same dialect. Or it’s just the sound a cat makes when its suddenly way too mad about something. So if I could strip the word of its sociological pejoratives, that’s exactly how I would describe the letter two women — Senators Joni and Marsha — and three men — Senators John, Marshall, and Kevin — sent to the Commish last week. Seems they all got their backs up — like hissing cats — by a letter Danny’s people sent them in response to an earlier inquiry about why the IRS hasn’t yanked tax exemptions from groups protesting Israel and sometimes yelling anti-Semitic words during protests last spring:
Dear Commissioner Werfel,
The tone and brevity of your interim response is troubling, leaving us questioning the value of the information you provided and how serious your office takes oversight inquiries. You will recall, on May 9, 2024, we wrote to you requesting you initiate an investigation into the funders of the criminal activities staining American college campuses. Your staff’s response, a basic recitation of Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and a referral to the publicly accessible Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Customer Account Services’ toll-free number and public e-mail inbox, is insufficient and insulting.
The IRS continuously fails to serve Americans in a timely manner. As you may know, your agency’s taxpayer service programs are routinely on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) High Risk List. If the IRS policy is to direct United States senators to publicly accessible toll-free numbers and e-mail inboxes, the funds Congress appropriates to the IRS Office of Legislative Affairs each year is clearly being wasted and in need of reprogramming. Rather than sharing what the IRS is doing to enforce our tax laws, your staff’s interim response flatly ignored the substance of our letter. We would remind you, enforcing tax laws is a core mission of the IRS. As IRS Commissioner, you are required to ensure tax-exempt organizations are abiding by the terms of their tax-exemptions, without partisan favor.
It is unfortunate that in the months since October 7, 2023, we have seen individuals engage in horrible criminal acts, including vulgar antisemitism as part of their misguided support of Hamas. As you know, Hamas—which still holds American citizens hostage in the Gaza Strip—is an Islamist-supremacist terrorist organization hell-bent on perpetrating a genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and around the world, including in the United States. When tax-exempt entities throw their lot in with criminal organizations like Hamas, it is your responsibility to enforce tax law, without partisanship. Unfortunately, you are not honoring your duty in this manner.
I might have taken the complaints a little more seriously if the writers hadn’t used the National Students for Justice in Palestine’s legitimate advocacy, and an extremely ridiculous assertion that a bunch of tree huggers support Hamas as examples of why IRS needs to start yanking tax exemptions more often. Or maybe if Senator Grassley or Warren had signed on.
But as it stands, the letter ain’t nothing but a hissy fit. That’s all it is. Maybe even a conniption.
darryll k. jones