Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Headline of the Day That Says It All

Ex-IRS Director: Tea Party Groups Deserved Scrutiny, But IRS Bungled the Job

8 comments:

BadTux said...

If they had nothing to hide, they had nothing to fear from the IRS. Just sayin ;).

- Badtux the Turning-their-own-rhetoric-back-on-them Penguin

Gordon said...

I know. I don't think any of them got turned down for exempt status anyway. Some of them should have.

Phil said...

I just got an Email alert from the LA Times, the head of the IRS just resigned.

BadTux said...

Acting head. Remember, the Repugs filibuster any Obama appointees, so Obama has never gotten to appoint his own head. The head while all this was going on was actually a George W. Bush appointee. Yup, the head of the IRS during the time that the IRS was investigating these right-wing groups was... A REPUBLICAN! Bwahahaah!

Gordon said...

The guy was a sacrificial goat. Somebody had to take the fall.

Ghoulardi said...

This would be a non-event had all groups been treated the same. The conservative sounding groups got questionnaires far different and more intrusive than other groups. Some of the questions (donor lists,membership lists) are against IRS rules.

That the head of the IRS at the time was a Bush appointee is a canard, (He is neither registered as a dem or repub, but HAS donated to the DNC.)

The head of the division that makes the decisions as to the status of an organization, the "Tax-Exempt and Government Entitles Division" of the IRS was Sarah Ingram. She ok'd the targeting.

Conservative sounding applications for tax exempt status stalled until Rep Dave Camp wrote to the IRS in 2012 to determine if targeting of conservative groups was happening.

Using the IRS as a political tool is dangerous. The IRS is the one agency everyone (should) fear.

BadTux said...

Thing is, 75% of these groups, when audited by the Bush IRS in 2006, actually didn't qualify for tax-exempt status because their activities were primarily political rather than "social welfare" activities.

In other words, yes, the IRS (possibly illegally) profiled a group that has a history of law breaking and gave them extra scrutiny. But hey, I thought right-wingers were all down with profiling of groups with a history of criminal activity? Oh wait, that's only if said groups are suspiciously dusky or Mooslim. Alrighty, then!

- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Ghoulardi said...

We aren't talking about groups pre 2010. The tea party did not exist in 2006. I'm not buying the Tea Parties have a history of law breaking.

Groups with conservative names were held in limbo. Here is a graphic:

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/i-r-s-approved-dozens-of-tea-party-groups-following-congressional-scrutiny/