Most politicians don’t have donors knocking down their doors to help them pay off debts from failed campaigns, yet that’s exactly what happened when former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) was nominated by President Trump to lead the IRS.
Even more concerningly, Long’s outstanding debts were just loans he had made to his own failed 2022 Senate campaign. In other words, donors — some of whom work for companies that have been accused of peddling fraudulent tax credits — were literally lining his pockets to the tune of $130,000. They were enabling Long to pay himself back the money he had sunk into his own campaign.
In the wake of this startling news, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) has called for Long’s nomination to be withdrawn. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have raised concerns that these contributions may violate federal anti-bribery laws.
Long’s concerning conduct should disqualify him from leading the IRS. Senators on both sides of the aisle should be sounding the alarm about this brazen act of corruption. The American people need to know that public officials are serving the interests of the country, not using positions of power for their own personal gain.
Leading the IRS is an important task, and one that cannot be politicized. All taxpayers deserve fair treatment, and the agency must be an impartial arbiter of tax collection and tax law enforcement. When the man nominated to lead the IRS accepts tens of thousands of dollars from donors who appear to be trying to curry favor with him, that erodes the American people’s faith in government and confidence in an agency that is already the frequent target of derision and scorn.
Too often in politics today we see a lack of integrity. All elected officials need to support the rule of law — and make clear that no one is above the law, especially politicians who are entrusted to be public servants. At this moment in history, we need to make integrity great again.
For these reasons, senators on both sides of the aisle should reject Long’s nomination to lead the IRS. The American people deserve better.
Claudine Schneider, a Republican from Rhode Island, served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from January 1981 to January 1991. She’s now a member of Issue One’s ReFormers Caucus, the largest bipartisan coalition of its kind ever assembled to advocate for sweeping reforms to fix our broken political system.
