Erosion of trust

The American public’s trust in their government is rapidly dropping because of recent actions perpetrated under the current administration n Washington, D.C.

First and foremost, Americans — both liberals and conservatives — had a spring chill running down their backs last week when news disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups in 2010 and then into 2011 and finally 2012, a presidential election year, with additional scrutiny and a rewriting of guidelines. At issue is whether groups that had “Tea Party” or “patriots” or “constitution” in their name met the the requirements for seeking tax exemption as a non-profit organization. Now, we learn a Jewish group that attacked the Obama Administration’s view on Israel also became the subject of additional IRS scrutiny.

Since Nevada has developed and nurtured a strong Tea Party base, we wonder how many groups the IRS targeted in the Silver State including Fallon. The prior IRS action does make one wonder. We believe no one in D.C.

Of course, the partisan rhetoric attacked each other during this time, especially when the Republicans warned the IRS in 2012 not to target specific groups, which then-IRS Commissioner Doug Schuman denied; New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, admonished his Republican colleagues for “threatening” the IRS in doing its job.

Moving ahead to this month, the IRS finally acknowledged it focused key conservative groups when Lois Lerner, head of the agency’s tax-exempt unit, issued an apology for “inappropriate” targeting of conservative groups.

Liberal Democrat Dennis Kucinich, a former congressman from Ohio, considered the IRS’ actions just as appalling .

Said Kucinich on one of the Sunday talk shows: “I’m not someone who’s celebrated Tea Party politics. But we cannot — this is not tolerable — we cannot have a condition in America where people’s politics are the basis for IRS attacks.”

Kucinich also doubted the IRS scrutiny came from the lower levels of the agency, and instead, insinuated it came from the top.

Furthermore, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, also appearing on a Sunday talk show, condemned the IRS and wondered why President Obama has not condemned the action, unless, of course, he had prior knowledge. Collins also called for IRS personnel involved in this action to be fired.

The IRS cover-up and now the revelation last week of the scrubbing of a dozen talking points from Benghazi, the terrorist attack on an American consulate in September that killed four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens, does not lend itself well for the Obama Administration. Is it any wonder, that many Second Amendment-rights Americans are nervous about expanded background checks and what the government plans to do with them when

Forget about transparency coming from the current administration, which, if it continues to hedge from the truth, will be the most secretive, corrupt presidency since the Nixon era.

American citizens of all political parties deserve honestly from their government and from the Obama Administration.

Editorials written by the LVN Editorial Board appear on Wednesdays.