Issue: Should IRS Scandal Lead to Complete Shutdown of the Agency?

Citing  an “appalling abuse of power” in the 501(c)(4)  scandal,  U-T San Diego in an editorial Monday called for an end to the Internal Revenue Service.  

Said the U-T: “Shut the agency down in tandem with an ambitious reform of the tax code that wipes out its complexity and in so doing makes capricious ‘enforcement’ much less likely and competent administration by a new, much smaller agency more likely.”

Try a flat tax or some other “streamlined tax code designed to promote economic growth,” the U-T said.

Replied one commenter: “It's a cheap shot to blame the IRS for taxes. Nobody wants to pay for maintaining our country, but we all enjoy its advantages.”

Should Congress seize the moment of scandal and turn it into an opportunity for fundamental reform? Or is partisan rancor only guaranteed to make things worse?