Amid Congressional hearings and an unending stream of pointed fingers, what is the real takeaway from the unfolding IRS mess?  United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard has the answer, arguing that our country needs to rethink the role of corporate money in our elections by passing a Constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens United decision.

In an In These Times article Tuesday, Gerard called for such an amendment, writing that

“while every politician in Washington is cursing the carbuncle, hardly one has complained of the cancer killing the patient. Allowing unlimited, unaccounted-for corporate spending in elections is a malignancy threatening the life of the republic.”

PFAW President Michael Keegan has also spoken out about the danger of allowing the IRS misdeeds to be held up as an example of the perils of oversight writ large.

 In a Huffington Post piece last week, he noted,

“The danger of this frame is that it will discourage the IRS from fully investigating all nonprofit groups spending money to influence elections. And it will distract from the core problem behind the IRS's mess: the post-Citizens United explosion of undisclosed electoral spending.”

As both writers remind us, the IRS should never base its work on the political leanings of applicant groups.  But where our real focus should lie in this national dialogue is on how to strengthen transparency and accountability in all electoral spending.