IRS Under Siege With No Friends

from politico, proud print partner of msnbc:

A steady stream of criticism directed at the IRS in recent weeks exploded with the disclosure that the agency targeted about 75 conservative groups for extra review because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their tax documents.

The GOP immediately pounced — and Democrats offered no defense. The result: The IRS is an agency under siege, facing its worst public relations debacle in years.

The revelation fuels Republican fears that the agency is targeting the administration’s political enemies. It also hands the GOP a fresh issue to use in attacking President Barack Obama’s administration at the same time they are stepping up their criticism of the way it handled the attack in Benghazi.

The reach of the IRS is so broad that the damage to the agency’s reputation could touch everything from its oversight of rapidly expanding nonprofit groups to the implementation of the health care law.

Top Republicans on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, immediately tied the IRS admission to some of the worst instances of government overreach, including Watergate.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) will convene a hearing on the matter in the coming weeks. Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) will do the same.

“The fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable,” Issa said. “The committee will aggressively follow up … and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.”

McConnell said “an apology won’t put this issue to rest.”

Democrats didn’t lift a finger in defense of the agency, which is implementing some of the party’s top policy priorities like the health care overhaul.

Even Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who pressed the IRS in 2010 to review the political activities of nonprofits, expressed outrage.

“We shouldn’t rush to judgment,” the Montana Democrat said. “But targeting groups based solely on their political views is not only inappropriate, it is intolerable.”

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IRS under siege with no friends - Lauren French and Kelsey Snell - POLITICO.com

all the coverups, all the scrubs, all the threatening and intimidating of witnesses, all the hiding of survivors from benghazi

and now this---using the irs to punish political enemies

how downright nixonian

this has been going on for 2 years, all the way from texas to virginia

Claim: IRS Won't Move Tax Status for Richmond Tea Party

Numerous Tea Party chapters claim IRS attempts to sabotage nonprofit status | Fox News

because, after all, what good is a committed socialist without an energetic irs

it's gonna get a whole lot worse, and fast

next week, points out politico, treasury's ig is to issue its public report on this matter

which accounts for the agency's abject apology this am

in april, the aclu produced documents showing that employees at the irs CRIMINAL DIVISION assumed they had the right to examine YOUR emails and text messages WITHOUT A WARRANT

chicago strongarm methodologies federalized

house ways and means, dave camp, is already on that one, notes roger simon's journolisters

then there was that insipid star trek video, $60,000 worth, which no one knew what was worse, the waste or the sophomoric production values

Taxpayer money finances IRS "Star Trek" parody - CBS News

and of course this irs, operating outta this treasury dept, a subsidy of this most transparent white house ever, REFUSED to make public the star trek (as well as the gilligan's island) until after foia forced em forward

that's when we learned, march 22, this year, that the irs SPENT 4 MILLION DOLLARS LAST YEAR ON A TV STUDIO it owns and operates to...

oh, please

when is enough enough, emil?

america is NOT one great big chicago

roger simon's professional leftists next examine the cantankerous clamor over irs funding, major battleground on the obamacare front from the beginning

politico: "even democrats say dealing with the notoriously secretive agency is akin to dental surgery"

carl levin: "getting information out of them is like pulling teeth"

reminds me of the cir (extremely prestigious center for investigative reporting) just last week, demonstrating that the number of veterans waiting more than a year for their benefits has grown by TWO THOUSAND PERCENT under barack hussein obama

VA’s ability to quickly provide benefits plummets under Obama/CIR

but the cir, which produces for 20-20 and 60 minutes and is also the major source for million-dollar-bill moyers at pbs, seemed (no exaggeration) more put out by the va's vault-like, almost soviet secrecy than they were bothered even by the two tour lieutenant colonel with the brain injury and no electricity

so here, at the end, politico bravely goes to bat for the battered, beleaguered bookkeepers

it's the sequester, simon's sycophants suggest

LOL!

do you think the white house will dare go there in public?

and the agency is overstretched these days, politico pleads, having to put in all that obamacare, for which republicans refuse to play nice, pony up

they haven't had an irs commissioner for 6 months...

you are going to hear an awful lot more about this one, house republicans guarantee

it's barack obama's black friday, indeed

party on, progressives

Is there anything Republicans won't try to use to tie X to Watergate?

Slyfox696 said:

Is there anything Republicans won't try to use to tie X to Watergate?

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It's a black mark on the Republican resume. So they're trying desperately to find anything which even remotely compares to the highest executive position in the country breaking the law and ****ting all over the constitution.

I miss the days when everybody loved the IRS

Damn Obama for ruining our romance with the IRS!!!

Oh the poor pitiful picked on teaparty patriots and their CPAC scams claiming to be 501c non-profit organizations to avoid paying taxes. boo de hoo hoo.

LOL @ the usual suspects.

My nazi is bigger than yours!

Why are we fighting here people? It is the IRS. We can all unite in our hate of the IRS! If the tea partiers want to take a shot at the IRS and expose the truth about how they handle things like NFP charities and religions I am right behind them. I don't care why the information gets exposed, i just care that it gets exposed. If the tea party accomplishes it that is friggen awesome and they helped the country. However, it is the IRS so make your shots count because they are mean and powerful.

Why, back in my day you'd see the IRS man walking down the street and you'd invite him in for tea.

tererun said:

Why are we fighting here people? It is the IRS. We can all unite in our hate of the IRS! If the tea partiers want to take a shot at the IRS and expose the truth about how they handle things like NFP charities and religions I am right behind them. I don't care why the information gets exposed, i just care that it gets exposed. If the tea party accomplishes it that is friggen awesome and they helped the country. However, it is the IRS so make your shots count because they are mean and powerful.

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The disagreement comes in that Tea Partiers see a few low-level IRS workers acting like jackasses and start imagining this as some massive conspiracy going all the way to the white house. Sane people, on the other hand, don't jump to that conclusion unless there's some evidence for it.

yesterday:

IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups - Byron Tau and Lauren French and Tarini Parti - POLITICO.com

Decisions to review the conservative groups were made by career employees in Cincinnati, Lerner said, but she declined to say if anyone has been disciplined. Lerner added that the IRS never denied tax exempt status to any conservative organization — it only asked for additional information.

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you can say that again

"detailed and exhaustive information on advocacy efforts, organizing efforts and social media activities..."

all newsletters, blogs, conventions, guest speakers, handouts, video and audio recordings, issues discussed...

foia's are being written all around the country, and charles boustany at ways and means is hanging the vanity curtains in his committee chamber for the ladies

and of course everyone is asking, why now?

there are so many more questions to be asked out loud

Lerner said that she only began looking into the issue when the press started writing about it last year before the election, but she declined to say why it took six months for the agency to publicly admit the practice. Lerner added that she was not aware if White House or Treasury Department employees knew about the review before Friday’s apology, and said she did not remember when she notified higher-ups at the IRS.

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ms lois lerner, director of the irs tax exempt office, better go thru HER records, she's about to be subpoenaed

Asked to elaborate on the number of nonprofits flagged for review that were conservative, Lerner struggled to give a percentage and said: “I’m not good at math.”

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neither is obama

the post grad question ms lerner really must be excused for flubbing was, what % of 300 is 75?

When reporters laughed and noted that they were on a conference call with the nation’s tax and revenue service, Lerner explained she was a lawyer by training.

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so's obama

“Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale,” the IRS said in a separate statement.

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now, unless the low level accountants at the cincy office were simultaneously flagging all app's with "progress" or "forward" in their names...

or "rainbow..."

that's gotta be a lie

prevarications are sure piling up around here lately, ask jonathan karl

but the upshot, from politico's perspective, is the bitterest pill---now we're never gonna get that crackdown on outside money

"it's unfortunate that a few bad apples at the irs will make it harder for those questions to be asked without claims of bias"

look forward to the ig's report coming out this week

why don't you come here to this thread, i'd love to read it to you

forward!

to 1974

Deuce said:

Why, back in my day you'd see the IRS man walking down the street and you'd invite him in for tea.




The disagreement comes in that Tea Partiers see a few low-level IRS workers acting like jackasses and start imagining this as some massive conspiracy going all the way to the white house. Sane people, on the other hand, don't jump to that conclusion unless there's some evidence for it.

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Wait, I thought those agents were acting on orders. Isn't that what we've been told?

Nothing to see here, folks....

Oh, and Benghazi is a right-wing fabrication....

STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS STUFF PEOPLE THERE'S NOTHING TO SEE!!!

apdst said:

Wait, I thought those agents were acting on orders. Isn't that what we've been told?

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No.

7890

sangha said:

I miss the days when everybody loved the IRS

Damn Obama for ruining our romance with the IRS!!!

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I was thinking the other day that I dislike the IRS less than I dislike the TSA.

Maybe I should get that checked.

Gaius46 said:

I was thinking the other day that I dislike the IRS less than I dislike the TSA.

Maybe I should get that checked.

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The TSA can help you with that these days. And check for prostate cancer while they're at it. Just go to any major airport and keep using the word "bomb."

Deuce said:

No.

7890

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That's not what Justabubba said.

apdst said:

That's not what Justabubba said.

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... can you link this? It's a developing story so maybe I've not seen what you're referring to.