This Way to the Henhouse ...

It was only a matter of time...

NYT: I.R.S. Letting Tax Lawyers Write Rules.

The Internal Revenue Service is asking tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes to take the lead in writing some of its new tax rules.

And then:

Several regulation experts and tax lawyers warned of dangers if the tax police must enforce rules written by those skilled at devising tax-free paths through the maze of the Internal Revenue Code.

Mortimer Caplin, tax commissioner during the Kennedy administration, said that as a law school professor “I instructed my students to work from their draft in any transaction because if you do the drafting you usually get your viewpoints behind the document.”

The viewpoint in this case being, "I don't want to pay taxes."

I used to think that a Democrat who won in 2008 would have to fire all Bush political appointees. But I think that he or she is just going to have to fire everybody.