Obama’s Abuse of the IRS, Not The 1st Time

[cwo_ghwebb]

Today’s big news story was the IRS’s admission that it had targeted conservative organizations–specifically, Tea Party groups–for audits. Not to be overlooked is the further admission that the IRS improperly demanded donor lists from some of these organizations, presumably so that conservative donors, too, could be harassed.

This is a shocking news story–one that would be a major scandal in a Republican administration–but it is not the first time the Obama administration has abused the IRS. In August 2010, Austin Goolsbee, who directed Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and later chaired his Council of Economic Advisers, gave a press briefing in which he discussed corporate income taxes. In that briefing, he suggested that he had access to confidential IRS data, and falsely accused the administration’s beta noire, Koch Industries, of not paying corporate income taxes:

So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of which are really giant firms, you know Koch Industries is a multibillion dollar businesses. So that creates a narrower base because we’ve literally got something like 50 percent of the business income in the U.S. is going to businesses that don’t pay any corporate income tax.
​

How would an Obama administration official have access to records showing how much a particular company pays in taxes?

Obama’s Abuse of the IRS–This Isn’t the First Time | Power Line

Abuse of power anyone?

 

[FreedomFan]

Yabbut, they sincerely apologized. Isn't that good enough?

 

[cwo_ghwebb]

10 crazy things the IRS asked Tea Party groups

The Internal Revenue Service admitted Friday to improperly targeting conservative groups for aggressive applications processes for tax exempt status in 2012, using the terms “Tea Party” and “patriot” as flags. Here are some of the things they wanted to know about those groups.


1. We’re gonna need all your direct and indirect communication. “‘Direct and indirect communications’ is profoundly chilling of First Amendment rights, ” said David French, senior counsel for American Center for Law & Justice, which has been representing 27 conservative organizations met with IRS inquisitions. “It’s so vague as to be impossible to comply with.”

10 crazy things the IRS asked Tea Party groups « Hot Air

At the end of the article there is a link to a letter sent by Issa and Jordan to the IRS that may have caused the apology IMHO.

 

[SamSpade]

Yabbut, they sincerely apologized. Isn't that good enough?

Sorry - SOMEONE's ass needs to be fired. You can bet it would happen if the shoe were on the other foot.

I'm not totally buying the whole "someone low on the chain of command authorized this", because there's an equally serious problem if someone low on the chain of command can do this. I don't think it came from the White House, but it wasn't just some schmoe pushing a pencil.

 

[SamSpade]

If the only consequence for being caught doing this is, someone apologizes, there's absolutely no reason not to go do it again, is there?

I ask my kids to apologize, but it only mitigates their punishment - they still get punished.

 

[FreedomFan]

Sorry - SOMEONE's ass needs to be fired. You can bet it would happen if the shoe were on the other foot.

I'm not totally buying the whole "someone low on the chain of command authorized this", because there's an equally serious problem if someone low on the chain of command can do this. I don't think it came from the White House, but it wasn't just some schmoe pushing a pencil.

No one will be fired. The media will perform amazing mental gymnastics to explain this away.

 

[SamSpade]

No one will be fired. The media will perform amazing mental gymnastics to explain this away.

Oh I know that. This is totally in the grand tradition of "I take full responsibility for this - now let's never speak of it again, ok?" which somehow works in Washington.

Just that the apology amounts to my kids saying "oops". What surprises me is that they didn't DENY it, which is what I expected them to do.

 

[PsyOps]

All I want to know is if my name popped up on their radar.

I consider this an act of treason. Targeting specific groups to 'punish the enemy'.