Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general’s report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.
The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.
But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog’s report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with “Tea Party,” ''Patriot" or “9/12 Project” in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says…
When a bureaucracy goes from benign to malignant for political purposes, that is extreme.
Makes me wonder- Is it really paranoid when the people you think are out to get you are actually out to get you? In this case, I don’t think so. The IRS already has enough of a track record of making peoples life hell, and in a few cases ending them.
Their punitive clout needs to be reigned in to the point of making them remember that we the people are their bosses, not the other way around.
If a gay, Black, Latino, Green, or Union organization was targeted, Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Gloria Allred and the Left wing media would be all over it.
As a taxpayer, I am glad that the IRS is investigating organizations to make sure that their tax-exempt status is legitimate. Not only should they be targeting tea party-related organizations, they should be investigating everyone with 501 (c)4 status.
I don’t see anything wrong with investigating this sort of thing in general. I have a problem with targeted investigations, but not the idea of investigating in general. After all, if we ARE going to be paying taxes and all that shit, I have no problem with using the IRS to make sure that those who aren’t paying taxes aren’t paying due to legitimate tax-exempt status.
And quite frankly, I’m not sure that this is that partisan of an issue, either. At least, not in the way most would suspect it is. After all, the head of the IRS is a Bush appointee, not an Obama one. The IRS operates with a pretty good amount of independence and if this was politically-motivated, it’s entirely possible that it was actually the result of a known fracture within the GOP between tea partiers and the older, more entrenched faction of the Republican Party.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
As a taxpayer, I am glad that the IRS is investigating organizations to make sure that their tax-exempt status is legitimate. Not only should they be targeting tea party-related organizations, they should be investigating everyone with 501 (c)4 status.
I don’t see anything wrong with investigating this sort of thing in general. I have a problem with targeted investigations, but not the idea of investigating in general. After all, if we ARE going to be paying taxes and all that shit, I have no problem with using the IRS to make sure that those who aren’t paying taxes aren’t paying due to legitimate tax-exempt status.
And quite frankly, I’m not sure that this is that partisan of an issue, either. At least, not in the way most would suspect it is. After all, the head of the IRS is a Bush appointee, not an Obama one. The IRS operates with a pretty good amount of independence and if this was politically-motivated, it’s entirely possible that it was actually the result of a known fracture within the GOP between tea partiers and the older, more entrenched faction of the Republican Party.[/quote]
As a taxpayer, I don’t want the IRS investigating anyone.
While your point about disgruntled old guard republicans targeting TEA party organizations holds some merit - to suggest the action is not partisan is laughable.
Saying the republicans were in on it too does not make targeting organizations because of their political views right, nor does the end justify the means.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
As a taxpayer, I am glad that the IRS is investigating organizations to make sure that their tax-exempt status is legitimate. Not only should they be targeting tea party-related organizations, they should be investigating everyone with 501 (c)4 status. [/quote]
I agree with the bolded part.
But that isn’t that they did. They targeted specific group with certain political leanings. This is toeing the line of violating their first amendment rights.
And we both know if it were LBGT groups, the shit storm would be incredible. The only reason this isn’t a bigger shit storm is it is currently “cool” to dislike “conservatives” in popular culture.
if Nixon hadn’t left office he would have been impeached for what President Obama is doing but hey whatever[/quote]
There’s been no evidence at all that Obama ordered any of this to happen, while myriad evidence existed in Nixon’s case, including the infamous secret tapes. The head of the IRS when this happened was a Bush appointee.
if Nixon hadn’t left office he would have been impeached for what President Obama is doing but hey whatever[/quote]
There’s been no evidence at all that Obama ordered any of this to happen, while myriad evidence existed in Nixon’s case, including the infamous secret tapes. The head of the IRS when this happened was a Bush appointee. [/quote]
Bush is no longer in office, and wasn’t this due to low level IRS agents anyway ?
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
The head of the IRS when this happened was a Bush appointee. [/quote]
What are we in, year 5 of Obama’s presidency? Will anything ever be his fault?[/quote]
DBCooper is correct on this point, but Obama has not replaced him. This type of appointee is not a political type appointee though. We all know that when you average the government employees they tend to lean a little left of center, unlike the average American that leans a little right of center.
The IRS targeted these Conservative Groups no doubt about it. We will see how far up it goes.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
The head of the IRS when this happened was a Bush appointee. [/quote]
What are we in, year 5 of Obama’s presidency? Will anything ever be his fault?[/quote]
DBCooper is correct on this point, but Obama has not replaced him. This type of appointee is not a political type appointee though. We all know that when you average the government employees they tend to lean a little left of center, unlike the average American that leans a little right of center.
The IRS targeted these Conservative Groups no doubt about it. We will see how far up it goes.[/quote]
I just think it’s funny Bush is even mentioned. I don’t think this issue should fall on Obama either, it’s just funny is all.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
The head of the IRS when this happened was a Bush appointee. [/quote]
What are we in, year 5 of Obama’s presidency? Will anything ever be his fault?[/quote]
DBCooper is correct on this point, but Obama has not replaced him. This type of appointee is not a political type appointee though. We all know that when you average the government employees they tend to lean a little left of center, unlike the average American that leans a little right of center.
The IRS targeted these Conservative Groups no doubt about it. We will see how far up it goes.[/quote]
I just think it’s funny Bush is even mentioned. I don’t think this issue should fall on Obama either, it’s just funny is all. [/quote]
I am tired of it also. When will this guy start taking responsibility? He wont it will always be someone else’s fault. The rich, the whitey, the insurance companies, the foreigners, the Republicans, the Bush. There is always an excuse from this guy.
Benghazi will fall onto Clinton. Lets just see how bad she wants to run for President. If she takes the fall then she will not run for President. If she blames Obama and takes it to the end then she will run for President, but it will take her through the mud so she will be damaged goods in the end.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
I don’t think this issue should fall on Obama either, it’s just funny is all. [/quote]
At this point, given what we know, whoever POTUS is or isn’t doesn’t matter.
If I had to guess this was political machine power over “Obama” power. That is to say, Bam as the head of his party right now would (and will) catch all the heat, but when it comes down to it, I doubt he ordered this. I wouldn’t put it past some of his advisors or other higher up party members. But this is all speculation.
[quote]dmaddox wrote:
When will this guy start taking responsibility? [/quote]
One would need to govern in order to have to accept responsibility. The RockStar-Campaigner in Chief we have now doesn’t do that type of icky worky work.
[quote]dmaddox wrote:
When will this guy start taking responsibility? [/quote]
One would need to govern in order to have to accept responsibility. The RockStar-Campaigner in Chief we have now doesn’t do that type of icky worky work. [/quote]
Why now? Is there something in the water, or some sort of odd geo-stellar gravitational phenomena which has spurred ABC on to actually do journalism stuff?