Obama Jokes: University Should Expect IRS Audits

If Barack Obama worked for the IRS, it is likely he would be out of a job this week.

The president joked about bringing an IRS audit against the president and board of trustees of Arizona State University in retaliation for not receiving an honorary degree.

Maybe David Axelrod suggested the line. He's full of zingers.

Glenn Reynolds, writing for the Wall Street Journal, declared the joke unfunny.

Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it's hard to see the humor. Surely he's aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.

[SNIP]

This is why the IRS is so strict with its own employees. Paul Caron, a professor at the University of Cincinnati who writes the TaxProf blog, noted in response to Mr. Obama's remarks that the law calls for the termination of IRS employees who make audit threats for illegitimate reasons. He suggested that Mr. Obama's "joke" might be grounds for firing if he were an IRS employee.

He's not, of course, but as the president his words carry much more weight and he should be much more careful. That's particularly true given that people still haven't forgotten about the Obama administration's other tax issues ...

[SNIP]

Mr. Obama has been accused of not appreciating the importance of financial capital to the proper functioning of the economy. But ill-chosen remarks like his ASU audit threat suggest that he also doesn't appreciate the role of moral capital. That, too, is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy.

The professor is correct, as usual.

Rough weekend for the Obama team: Axelrod insults Miss California USA; the President thinks IRS threats are funny; and Joe Biden reveals the secret location of the vice presidential bunker, as part of a joke.

Maybe they should leave comedy to the professionals and remember that they have day jobs.