IRS: Heard loud and clear

Recently the Cd’A Press published my letter about an IRS article asking charitable groups to report Social Security numbers of donors. I said that would mean massive work for charities, discourage donors and create opportunity for identity theft.

In the days that followed, the IRS and Treasury department received 37,977 comments from all over the country, virtually unanimous in opposing the regulation. It worked. The Idaho Nonprofit Center reports that Treasury and IRS will announce in the Jan. 8 Federal Register they are dumping that amendment. Sigh of relief.

This is the way democracy has to work. Posturing and fuming politicians and fear-mongering slogans only create dictatorships. What creates democracy is the behind-the-scenes, daily effort of millions of ordinary informed citizens who work quietly to monitor, understand and inform, and media like the Press which publishes their concern. In this case a horrendous breach of the First Amendment was almost silently quashed before it ever happened. Democracy works if and when we realize Democracy is work. You and I are the government we create.

MIKE BULLARD

Coeur d’Alene