Foley and outsourcing the IRS

One disturbing development over the past few years is the news that Congress decided to let the IRS outsource debt-collection duties to private companies. So now, the IRS treats deadbeats the same way the phone company does, hiring a debt-collection agency which gets to keep a big slice of the take. It's a great way to siphon off a little more of the public treasury for political cronies.

And guess who's at the center of that? Former Rep. Foley, whose sexcapades with the pages forced him to resign. He and -- get this -- Rep. Tom Reynolds (who is in trouble for apparently helping to cover up Foley's paedophilia) sat on the Ways and Means subcommittee which oversees the IRS. And Salon reports that the Pinto family, which owns Oxford Management Services (a debt-collection company) gave almost all of its sizeable campaign contributions to Foley and Reynolds, often writing checks to the two Reps. on the same day.

It's clear that this New York family took a keen interest in the political fortunes of a specific Florida congressman. Of course the Pintos maintain that there was no "quid pro quo" there, despite the obvious appearance of influence. Oxford hasn't won an IRS contract yet, but it did get the outsourcing law it wanted.

Business as usual in GOP Washington.

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