Warped

Part of the IRS hearings have dealt with $50 million spent on conferences for morale, team-building and the like. The Star Trek parody video they made has gotten a lot more attention than I'm sure they ever thought possible.



Plenty of people are outraged at this sort of stuff, but it's a distraction. (One that gets the attention of the public, to be sure). Yes, it's annoying--especially the idea in the video that the IRS is saving us from anarchy--and probably a waste of time, but this is the sort of stuff every big organization does. Such conferences are one of the perks, if that's the word, of the job.

I realize the IRS is doing it on our dime, so it's a bit different, but even if it's a lavish conference, the money spent is nothing next to the damage done by allegedly misusing the agency to go after groups based on their politics.  That goes to the very foundation of what government is about.  To give these conferences so much time in the spotlight is to trivialize what this scandal really means.