Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
I just heard some thing.
"Defund the IRS to cut off Obamacare" coming from the mouths of several people on television this morning. Senators are considering this as are Congresspersons. (I think it has to be in the House).
What I am REALLY LOVING here is that fat fuck Sander Levin (the REASON I didn't go to the Air Force Academy) is PISSED at the IRS.
(For the record, Levin refused to give me a letter granting me the ability to go to the USAFA in the 1970s... because he "is against war".)
May 17th, 2013, 13:15
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Wow. Levin is gonna get this guy. I'm... speechless.
May 17th, 2013, 13:23
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Outgoing IRS chief faces hearing after 'stunning' revelation on another scandal-tied official
The outgoing commissioner of the IRS is in the hot seat Friday, scheduled to testify for the first time on his agency's scandalous practice of targeting conservative groups -- after it was revealed that another potentially implicated official is now in charge of an ObamaCare unit.
Steven Miller, the acting commissioner who was ousted by the administration earlier this week, will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee Friday morning.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are sure to have plenty of questions for Miller, as they search for who was responsible for the program. Outrage mounted after lawmakers learned that the IRS official who led the tax-exempt organizations unit when the targeting took place -- Sarah Hall Ingram -- has since moved over to the IRS office responsible for ObamaCare.
"Stunning. Just stunning," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after learning of the move.
The acknowledgement comes after the administration announced that Ingram's successor Joseph Grant -- who had only been on the job a few days -- would be retiring.
The agency released a memo Thursday night that may give insight into Miller's talking points at the Friday hearing, although it was written by Grant. In the memo, Grant acknowledged "errors" but said the program was started to deal with an influx of applications, as well as allegations that some of the groups were engaged in political activity that would be "impermissible" under the tax-exempt status they were seeking.
Also scheduled to testify is J. Russell George -- the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration -- and the man whose report released this week exposed the IRS practice that led to Miller's ouster (though Miller was apparently planning to leave the agency anyway).
President Obama, meanwhile, maintained Thursday that he didn't know about the investigation into the IRS program until it was made public.
The ObamaCare official now drawing scrutiny had been serving as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations from 2009 to 2012 -- the division included the group that targeted Tea Partiers -- and has since left to serve as director of the IRS' Affordable Care Act division. That unit is responsible for enforcing parts of the health care law, including the fines associated with the so-called individual mandate -- the requirement to buy health insurance.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, citing her current position and history with the scandal-marred unit, reinforced his call Thursday for the IRS to be blocked from implementing the health care law. "Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans' health care," he said.
While still the commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, Ingram was assigned to head the implementation of ObamaCare at the IRS in 2010 after the law was enacted. It is not clear when she stopped being the head of the tax-exempt office or how active her role was there while she was implementing ObamaCare.
Meanwhile, Obama appointed a new acting commissioner after the prior IRS chief announced his resignation.
The revelations at the Friday hearing could add more headaches for the Obama administration, as it tries to juggle its response to several scandals at once.
It's unclear whether more officials will resign at the IRS in the days to come. This week's clean-up at the agency is part of the Obama administration's mad dash to save face and regain footing after being hammered by a series of scandals this week, including new questions over the Benghazi terror attack and the Justice Department's seizing of journalists' phone records.
On Thursday, Obama appointed senior White House budget officer Daniel Werfel as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
Republican leaders were quick to call out Obama for being too passive with the situation and demanded more be done.
"This is runaway government at its worst," McConnell said Thursday. "Who knows who they will target next? The truth will come out. It always does."
However, the president knocked down the prospect of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS, saying the congressional investigations and a separate Justice Department probe should be enough to nail down who was responsible for improperly targeting Tea Party groups when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Asked whether he previously knew about the IRS practice, Obama said Thursday: "I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the (inspector general) report" beforehand.
The president, though, did not say whether he was previously aware of the IRS' actions, which allegedly started as early as 2010, well before the inspector general's office began to investigate. Republican lawmakers were inquiring about the alleged targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS more than a year ago.
But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has said no one in the White House knew about the practice.
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Ousted IRS chief: Errors not caused by politics
The ousted chief of the Internal Revenue Service is telling Congress that his agency made errors in targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, but he says the mistakes were not the result of partisan views.
The Associated Press
Published: May 17, 2013 at 6:15 a.m. PDT
WASHINGTON — The ousted chief of the Internal Revenue Service is telling Congress that his agency made errors in targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, but he says the mistakes were not the result of partisan views.
In a prepared statement, former acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller was ready to tell the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday that the screening system agency workers set up was designed to deal with a growing caseload of groups seeking tax-exempt status. Miller said it was not due to "any political or partisan viewpoint."
He says that the IRS has instituted new processes designed to prevent the problem from occurring again.
Miller was testifying in Congress' first hearing into the targeting of tea party and other conservative groups by the IRS.
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Congress Due To Grill Ousted IRS Chief
by
Dennis Brack/Landov
Steven Miller, who was acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, is due at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing Friday morning at which he'll be questioned about the agency's during the 2012 campaign cycle.
The hearing is due to begin at 9 a.m. ET. It will be webcast and . We'll watch for news and update.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew asked for, and accepted, Miller's resignation on Wednesday. Late Thursday afternoon, that Office of Management and Budget Controller Daniel Werfel would be replacing Miller.
The that the IRS had admitted that some of its personnel looked for words such as "tea party" and "patriots" on organizations' applications for tax-exempt status. If those words appeared, the groups' applications were given extra scrutiny and action on their requests was delayed. A Treasury Department concludes that "ineffective management" allowed "inappropriate criteria" to be used during the processing of such groups' requests.
May 17th, 2013, 13:51
Malsua
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
So they're calling it "errors" now?
Errors? Really? It's called partisan politics asshole! It's dirty, it's illegal and you fuckers should go to jail.
May 17th, 2013, 14:45
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
If there is anything I learned in the last few days watching Congressional inquiries, it is that the Obama Administration in general doesn't have a CLUE of what's happening around them, or they are lying, or they are completely and totally incompetent.
From Holder to Miller to Obama every last answer has been an obfuscation, a lie or worse an out-and-out admission of incompetence when someone (like the President for instance) "learns from the media" instead of from his own people.
May 17th, 2013, 14:55
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Acting IRS chief: Tea Party disclosure came from planted question
By Bernie Becker - 05/17/13 10:36 AM ET Tweet
Steven Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, said Friday that last week’s revelation that the IRS gave special scrutiny to Tea Party groups came from a planted question.
Lois Lerner, an IRS official with oversight of tax-exempt groups, disclosed the scrutiny at an American Bankers Association conference last Friday, after a question from a lawyer who has served on IRS advisory boards.
Miller, under questioning from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), acknowledged that IRS officials were aware that question would be coming.
“I believe that we talked about that, yes,” Miller said at a House Ways and Means hearing, the first congressional inquiry into the agency’s actions.
Both Lerner and Miller testified before Congress last week, but did not discuss the attention given to Tea Party groups. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) said at Friday’s hearing that he asked Lerner last week about the IRS’s oversight of political groups seeking tax-exempt status.
For his part, Miller has consistently said throughout Friday’s hearing that he did not mislead Congress – under sharp questioning from Republicans who aren’t so sure of that. “I always answered questions truthfully,” Miller said.
He added that – while the agency was wrong to give extra scrutiny to Tea Party groups – the attention was not politically motivated, and he believes it would be wrong to call that scrutiny “targeting.”
By Andy Sullivan and Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON | Fri May 17, 2013 10:58am EDT
(Reuters) - Lawmakers accused leaders of the Internal Revenue Service of lying on Friday as they opened the first in a series of investigative hearings about the tax collection agency's targeting of conservative groups.
Republicans and Democrats said senior IRS officials should have alerted Congress last year when they found out that their examiners were singling out Tea Party groups for intense scrutiny when the groups applied for tax-exempt status.
"That isn't being misled. That's lying," said Republican Dave Camp, the chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.
The acting head of the agency, Steven Miller, apologized for the IRS's actions and said they stemmed from poor management, rather than a partisan desire to punish conservative groups.
"I did not mislead Congress or the American people," said Miller, who was fired by President Barack Obama on Wednesday. "I think what happened here is that foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient."
Obama, a Democrat, is racing to get in front of a scandal that threatens to eclipse his second-term agenda. He has twice appeared in public to condemn the IRS's actions and has promised to cooperate with three congressional investigations and a Justice Department probe. He has, however, resisted demands for a special prosecutor to look into the allegations.
Republicans have angrily accused Obama's administration of using government powers to target political foes. They say the IRS scandal is one example of a federal government that has grown too large and intrusive.
"Is this still America?" asked Republican Representative Kevin Brady of Texas.
AN EXPLOSION OF ADVOCACY GROUPS
An internal IRS watchdog reported this week that IRS investigators had singled out groups that had conservative-sounding phrases such as "Patriot" and "Tea Party" in their titles when they applied for a tax-exempt status.
Such status allows groups to keep their donor lists secret while engaging in limited political activity. Political campaigns, by contrast, must make their donors lists public.
Tea Party groups say they were asked for information such as what books they read. The questioning in some cases took nearly three years, preventing certain groups from participating in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
The IRS watchdog blamed the scandal on ineffective management and bureaucratic confusion.
The IRS has seen the number of groups applying for so-called 501(c)4 status double in the wake of a January 2010 Supreme Court decision that loosened campaign-finance rules at a time when it has struggled to monitor existing tax-exempt groups.
The top Democrat on the committee, Representative Sander Levin, warned Republicans not to turn the investigation into a partisan witch hunt.
However, he noted that Lois Lerner, the IRS official who made the scandal public last week, did not bring it up when she testified in front of the committee a few days earlier.
"That is wholly unacceptable and one of the reasons we believe Miss Lerner should be relieved of her duty," Levin said.
Two other committees, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, also will hold IRS hearings next week.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West and Susan Heavey; Editing by David Lindsey and Jackie Frank)
May 17th, 2013, 15:04
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Posted: Friday, May 17th 2013 at 10:36am
House chairman sees IRS errors as part of pattern
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service's improper use of tougher scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status seems part of a broader pattern of intimidation and cover-ups by the Obama administration, a top House Republican said Friday.
The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., held the first congressional hearing into the tax agency's improper targeting of tea party and other conservative groups.
The just-ousted acting chief of the IRS, Steven Miller, expressed regret for the heightened reviews.
"I want to apologize on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service for the mistakes that we made and the poor service we provided," Miller told the committee.
"The affected organizations and the American public deserve better. Partisanship and even the perception of partisanship has no place at the Internal Revenue Service."
Camp referred to a "culture of cover-ups and intimidation in this administration," but offered no other examples.
The administration has been forced on the defensive about last September's terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and the government's seizure of The Associated Press' telephone records as part of a leaks investigation.
Republicans are hoping to link the issues in an effort to raise questions about President Barack Obama's credibility and make it harder for him to press a second-term agenda.
Camp's remark drew a sharp retort from the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan. Levin said if the hearing became a preview of the 2014 political campaigns, "we'll be making a very, very serious mistake."
Even so, Levin also was harshly critical of the IRS's treatment of conservative groups. He said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that makes decisions about tax-exempt groups, should be "relieved of her duties."
Though Miller and another top IRS official are stepping down, Camp said that would not be enough.
"The reality is this is not a personnel problem. This is a problem of the IRS being too large, too powerful, too intrusive and too abusive of honest, hardworking taxpayers," Camp said.
Miller said the IRS struggled to efficiently handle growing numbers of applications for tax-exempt status, and that political bias was not the reason for the increased scrutiny.
Lawmakers had asked the IRS repeatedly about complaints from conservative groups that their applications were being treated unfairly, but said Miller and others never told them the groups were being targeted.
Members of Congress said this continued even after May 2012, when the agency says Miller was briefed on the practice. Miller was previously a deputy commissioner whose portfolio included the unit that made decisions about tax-exempt status.
Also testifying Friday was J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.
In a report he issued this past week, IRS officials said they were not politically pressured to target conservative groups. George is continuing to investigate that question.
George's report concluded that the IRS office in Cincinnati, which screened applications for the tax exemptions, improperly singled out tea party and other conservative groups for tougher treatment. The report says the practice began in March 2010 and lasted more than 18 months.
The report blamed "ineffective management" for letting IRS officials craft "inappropriate criteria" to review applications from tea party and other conservative groups, based on their names or political views. It found that the IRS took no action on many of the conservative groups' applications for tax-exempt status for long periods of time, hindering their fundraising for the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Republicans have spent the past few days trying to link the IRS' improper scrutiny of conservatives to Obama. The president has said he didn't know about the targeting until last Friday, when Lerner acknowledged at a legal conference that conservative groups had been singled out.
"I promise you this, that the minute I found out about it, then my main focus was making sure that we get the thing fixed," Obama said Thursday.
Many of the groups were applying for tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations, which are allowed to participate in campaign activity if that is not their primary activity. The IRS judges whether that imprecise standard is met.
Attorney General Eric Holder has said the FBI was investigating whether the IRS may have violated applicants' civil rights.
Obama has rejected the idea of naming a special prosecutor to investigate the episode, saying the investigations by Congress and the Justice Department were sufficient.
Obama has named Daniel Werfel, a top White House budget officer, to replace Miller.
Also Thursday, Joseph Grant, one of Miller's top deputies, announced plans to retire June 3, according to an internal IRS memo. Grant is commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, which includes the agents that targeted tea party groups for additional scrutiny.
Grant joined the IRS in 2005 and took over as acting commissioner of the tax exempt and government entities division in December 2010. He was just named the permanent commissioner May 8.
When asked whether Grant was pressured to leave, IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said Grant had more than 31 years of federal service and it was his personal decision to leave.
Grant's predecessor at the IRS was Sarah Hall Ingram, who is now director of the agency's Affordable Care Act Office. Ingram was in charge of the tax exempt division when IRS agents first started targeting conservative groups.
The IRS said Ingram was assigned to help the agency implement the health care law in December 2010, about six months before the Treasury inspector general's report said her subordinate, the director of exempt organizations, learned about the targeting.
May 17th, 2013, 15:05
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Resignation and/or retiring early isn't going to be "sufficient"..... not this time.
May 17th, 2013, 15:19
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
As I.R.S. Officials Testify, Lawmakers Ask: Who Knew?
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
Published: May 17, 2013 Comment
WASHINGTON — The first Congressional hearing into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for special scrutiny quickly turned into partisan jousting, with House Republicans pressing to expand the inquiry to other tax misdeeds closer to the White House, while Democrats tried to keep the focus narrow and under the purview of an I.R.S. chief appointed by President George W. Bush.
Steven T. Miller, the acting I.R.S. commissioner who has resigned, called the agency’s actions “obnoxious,” but told the House Ways and Means Committee they were not motivated by partisanship. And in testy exchanges, he said he had not misled Congress, even though he did not divulge the targeting efforts of a Cincinnati unit examining 70,000 applications for tax exemption.
He called the group’s centralization of applications from groups with names that included the words “Tea Party” or “patriots” simply “foolish mistakes” that “were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection.”
With two additional hearings already scheduled for next week, it is clear the focus of Congressional inquires will extend well beyond the selection of 298 conservative groups for special scrutiny of their tax-exemption applications.
Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, pressed Mr. Miller and Russell George, the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, on the releasing of tax information on Koch Industries, the giant family business of conservative benefactors Charles and David Koch, by a former White House economist, Austan Goolsbee. He also hit on the publication of donor lists for the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex unions, and the release of confidential applications for tax-exempt status to the investigative reporting outfit Pro Publica.
But at least initially, Republican efforts to expand the inquiry did not get much traction. The incidents of releases of confidential tax information were referred to the inspector general for investigation, but were found to be inadvertent, the witnesses said.
As for Republican inquiries on whether the targeting of conservative groups was divulged to Obama administration officials outside the I.R.S., Mr. Miller said “that would be a violation of law.”
“I would be shocked” if that occurred, he said.
President Obama has tried to get on top of the scandal, condemning the program, vowing changes and requesting Mr. Miller’s resignation. But many Republicans have greeted each of these moves scornfully. Mr. Miller, as an acting I.R.S. chief, was likely to step down in June anyway, unless nominated for the permanent position.
Joseph Grant, commissioner of the I.R.S.'s tax-exempt and government-entities division, announced Thursday that he, too, would be leaving in the next month. But Republicans jumped on news Thursday evening that Mr. Grant’s predecessor, Sarah Hall Ingram, who led the division when the targeting operation began, is now in charge of the I.R.S. division overseeing implementation of parts of the president’s health care law.
Ms. Ingram’s name did not appear anywhere in the inspector general’s report of the program, nor had Republicans singled her out for criticism until now. But Republicans were eager to link the I.R.S. scandal with their opposition to the health care law.
“Stunning, just stunning,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
According to the inspector general’s report, Mr. Miller was aware of the political targeting in March 2012, sending a team from I.R.S. headquarters in Washington to discuss it with the program’s leaders in Cincinnati. Yet a month later, Mr. Miller, then the deputy I.R.S. commissioner for enforcement, wrote a letter to Republican senators saying there was no targeting of conservative groups.
“There is a penalty for lying to Congress,” Mr. Boustany said.
The hearings will continue next week. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold its hearing, and its Democratic chairman, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, hopes to question Douglas Shulman, a Bush administration appointee who was I.R.S. commissioner during most of the targeting program.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its combative chairman, Representative Darrell Issa of California, will hold its first hearing on the matter, and will question Lois Lerner, an I.R.S. official who appears to have had knowledge of the program almost from its inception in 2010. Last Friday, when she apologized for I.R.S. conduct, she told reporters she learned of the program through news reports last year.
Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and a member of the oversight committee, has already accused Ms. Lerner of lying to Congress.
“Our job is to, in an appropriate fashion at the right pace, pursue the truth,” Mr. Jordan said.
May 17th, 2013, 15:19
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
As I.R.S. Officials Testify, Lawmakers Ask: Who Knew?
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
Published: May 17, 2013 Comment
WASHINGTON — The first Congressional hearing into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for special scrutiny quickly turned into partisan jousting, with House Republicans pressing to expand the inquiry to other tax misdeeds closer to the White House, while Democrats tried to keep the focus narrow and under the purview of an I.R.S. chief appointed by President George W. Bush.
Steven T. Miller, the acting I.R.S. commissioner who has resigned, called the agency’s actions “obnoxious,” but told the House Ways and Means Committee they were not motivated by partisanship. And in testy exchanges, he said he had not misled Congress, even though he did not divulge the targeting efforts of a Cincinnati unit examining 70,000 applications for tax exemption.
He called the group’s centralization of applications from groups with names that included the words “Tea Party” or “patriots” simply “foolish mistakes” that “were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection.”
With two additional hearings already scheduled for next week, it is clear the focus of Congressional inquires will extend well beyond the selection of 298 conservative groups for special scrutiny of their tax-exemption applications.
Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, pressed Mr. Miller and Russell George, the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, on the releasing of tax information on Koch Industries, the giant family business of conservative benefactors Charles and David Koch, by a former White House economist, Austan Goolsbee. He also hit on the publication of donor lists for the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex unions, and the release of confidential applications for tax-exempt status to the investigative reporting outfit Pro Publica.
But at least initially, Republican efforts to expand the inquiry did not get much traction. The incidents of releases of confidential tax information were referred to the inspector general for investigation, but were found to be inadvertent, the witnesses said.
As for Republican inquiries on whether the targeting of conservative groups was divulged to Obama administration officials outside the I.R.S., Mr. Miller said “that would be a violation of law.”
“I would be shocked” if that occurred, he said.
President Obama has tried to get on top of the scandal, condemning the program, vowing changes and requesting Mr. Miller’s resignation. But many Republicans have greeted each of these moves scornfully. Mr. Miller, as an acting I.R.S. chief, was likely to step down in June anyway, unless nominated for the permanent position.
Joseph Grant, commissioner of the I.R.S.'s tax-exempt and government-entities division, announced Thursday that he, too, would be leaving in the next month. But Republicans jumped on news Thursday evening that Mr. Grant’s predecessor, Sarah Hall Ingram, who led the division when the targeting operation began, is now in charge of the I.R.S. division overseeing implementation of parts of the president’s health care law.
Ms. Ingram’s name did not appear anywhere in the inspector general’s report of the program, nor had Republicans singled her out for criticism until now. But Republicans were eager to link the I.R.S. scandal with their opposition to the health care law.
“Stunning, just stunning,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
According to the inspector general’s report, Mr. Miller was aware of the political targeting in March 2012, sending a team from I.R.S. headquarters in Washington to discuss it with the program’s leaders in Cincinnati. Yet a month later, Mr. Miller, then the deputy I.R.S. commissioner for enforcement, wrote a letter to Republican senators saying there was no targeting of conservative groups.
“There is a penalty for lying to Congress,” Mr. Boustany said.
The hearings will continue next week. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold its hearing, and its Democratic chairman, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, hopes to question Douglas Shulman, a Bush administration appointee who was I.R.S. commissioner during most of the targeting program.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its combative chairman, Representative Darrell Issa of California, will hold its first hearing on the matter, and will question Lois Lerner, an I.R.S. official who appears to have had knowledge of the program almost from its inception in 2010. Last Friday, when she apologized for I.R.S. conduct, she told reporters she learned of the program through news reports last year.
Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and a member of the oversight committee, has already accused Ms. Lerner of lying to Congress.
“Our job is to, in an appropriate fashion at the right pace, pursue the truth,” Mr. Jordan said.
May 17th, 2013, 15:20
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Charles Dharapak/Associated Press President Obama on the I.R.S.: During a rainy press conference at the Rose Garden, President Obama addressed the scandal of the I.R.S. specifically targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
WASHINGTON — President Obama appointed Daniel I. Werfel, the controller of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the White House announced Thursday.
Daniel I. Werfel
Mr. Werfel, who manages much of the day-to-day operations at the budget office, will replace Steven Miller, who was fired this week as the agency’s interim director in the scandal over its targeting of conservative groups.
The White House said in a statement that Mr. Werfel would begin his new job on Wednesday.
“Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill,” Mr. Obama said in the statement. “The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the I.R.S., Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time.”
Another top official at the I.R.S. also announced his departure Thursday. Joseph H. Grant, the acting commissioner of the tax exempt and government entities division, said he would retire on June 3.
At the budget office, Mr. Werfel has been the administration’s point man on one of the thorniest political problems in the last six months: the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration.
As controller, Mr. Werfel is responsible for making sure that the departments and agencies of the federal government adhere to the sequestration law.
Now, the president is charging him with another difficult task: overseeing the I.R.S. in the middle of a scandal. Republicans — and some Democrats — have made clear that they intend to hold numerous hearings over the next several months, and it will be Mr. Werfel’s job to comply with their demands even as he keeps the agency running.
Mr. Werfel, 42, is a longtime civil servant who has worked deep in bureaucracy, far from the political arena. Before managing the implementation of the sequester, for instance, Mr. Werfel helped to implement the complicated American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Mr. Obama’s stimulus legislation. The selection of such a technocrat — a well-liked one who also served in the George W. Bush administration, no less — seemed designed to pre-emptively defuse partisan criticism.
Josh Bolten, who served as Mr. Bush’s chief of staff and budget director, praised Mr. Werfel as a “smart choice” to help restore faith in the I.R.S. following the revelations that officials there targeted conservative groups.
“He was always, in my experience, very professional, careful, nonideological,” Mr. Bolten said. “He’s not easily intimidated. He’s low ego. He’s just going to tell it straight like it is. It’s not that he’s bipartisan. He’s nonpartisan.”
Officials said Mr. Werfel had agreed to serve in the position until the end of the year. The president then would have to name another acting commissioner or nominate someone to permanently lead the agency. That nomination would be subject to Senate confirmation.
May 17th, 2013, 15:31
Ryan Ruck
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Just curious as to when he lacked it? Because of his earlier radio show times I don't usually get to listen to him anymore after his TV show left FNC but, you can independently verify just about everything he says, and in fact he has encouraged it.
I've noticed Megyn Kelly and especially (no surprise) Dana Perino are really, as Mark Levin has referred to them when calling them to the carpet on things in the past, Bushies - aka milquetoast, country club Republicans.
I learned all I need to about Megyn Kelly when she felt eminently qualified to begin spouting off about guns and demanding "something be done" post Newtown despite her clearly evident lack of knowledge about them. She can't go back on maternity leave soon enough...
And let's not forget Dana Perino didn't even know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was. She's one of the reasons I quit watching The Five despite Greg Gutfeld and Eric Bolling being on there. I just can't stand her vapidity.
May 17th, 2013, 15:34
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
IRS chief denies politics drove Tea Party screening
Gregory Korte, USA TODAY11:40 p.m. EDT May 16, 2013
Representatives of both parties fault the tax agency.
WASHINGTON -- The nation's top tax official apologized for the agency's treatment of conservative groups, denied he lied to Congress about it, and insisted that politics did not motivate the agency's decision to give Tea Party groups extra scrutiny.
"Partisanship or the perception of politics has no place in the IRS," acting commissioner Steven Miller said in a brief opening statement to the Ways and Means Committee, which is investigating the affair.
"I do not believe partisanship motivated the actions," of the tax-exempt organizations office in Cincinnati. He said. Rather, "foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection."
But from there, Miller was grilled about who was responsible for the targeting, what the agency has done to hold them accountable, and why he and other IRS officials did not disclose it when they first became aware of it.
Many of those questions were derailed by disagreements about the definitions of words like "targeting" and "mislead."
"When you talk about targeting, it's a pejorative term," he said. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., later noted that the term appeared 16 times in an inspector general audit of the matter released this week.
Miller said former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman's testimony failing to disclose the activity -- in response to specific questions --was "incorrect," but not misleading.
And Miller also admitted that the first public apology for the scandal -- which came from Tax Exempt Director Lois Lerner at an American Bar Association conference a week ago -- was in response to a question planted by the IRS. That was two days after Lerner testified to a congressional committee and again failed to acknowledge there was any targeting.
Miller said only two employees were disciplined: One, who sent inappropriate follow-up questions to Tea Party groups, was reassigned. Another was given "oral counseling" for compiling the list of keywords that were used to hold up applications of political groups.
"With all due respect, this systematic abuse cannot be fixed with just one resignation, or two," said committee Chairman Dave Camp, R. Mich. "This is not a personnel problem. This is a problem of the IRS being too large, too intrusive, too abusive."
"It looks like the truth was hidden to the American people just long enough to make it through an election," Camp said.
The panel's top Democrat, Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Mich., said he, too, wanted to find out why the IRS targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny, and that IRS officials responsible should be fired. But he took exception to the injection of campaign politics into the hearing.
"If instead this hearing becomes an effort to score political points, it will be a disregard of the duties of this committee," he said.
And many Democrats turned to what they saw as the bigger issue: A tax code that doesn't make clear what kinds of political activities a tax-exempt social welfare organization can participate in. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said the Democrats should defend the right of the Tea Party to "be as wrong as it wants to be" but should guard against anonymous "dark money" being funneled into political campaigns through tax-exempt groups.
STORY: IRS approved liberal groups, kept Tea party in limbo
The agency's chief watchdog testified Friday that the Internal Revenue Service has not fully addressed the problems that led it to improperly subject Tea Party and other conservative groups to extra scrutiny.
"We do not consider the concerns in this report to be resolved," Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George said.
It was George's report that uncovered the practices in the IRS's tax exempt office, which began in 2010 and continued until media reports and congressional questions prompted his audit last year.
George said there was "no evidence" of political motivations on the part of IRS officials in Cincinnati, where all applications for tax-exempt status are processed. But it did blame "a lack of managerial review, at all levels."
The report has already led to the resignation of two top IRS officials and launched a criminal investigation by the FBI.
The House's tax-writing committee is one of three congressional committees promising hearings on the affair. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday requested to interview five low- to mid-level IRS employees.
Among them: Holly Paz, the director of rulings and agreements in Washington, who made $155,500 in 2011. She contributed $2,000 to President Obama's campaign committee in 2008, campaign reports show.
May 17th, 2013, 15:38
American Patriot
Re: IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)
Second IRS official resigns after scandal
Aamer Madhani and Gregory Korte, USA TODAY11:22 a.m. EDT May 16, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Thursday he is naming a trusted White House budget official, Daniel Werfel, to serve as his new acting IRS commissioner.
The appointment of Werfel comes as a second top IRS official announced Thursday that he is stepping down in the aftermath of revelations that the agency targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.
Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's tax-exempt and government entities division, will retire on June 3, according to an IRS statement. Grant joined the IRS in August 2005 and became the deputy commissioner of the tax exempt division in 2007. He became the second senior IRS official in as many days to offer his resignation.
Grant had only be elevated to the position of commissioner of the division last week -- two days before the agency confirmed the targeting of Tea Party groups and conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status.
Meanwhile, Obama announced that the controller of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Werfel, will move into the job of acting IRS commissioner next week, replacing Steven Miller.
"Throughout his career working in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill," Obama said in a statement. "The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time."
Obama announced Wednesday that he'd accepted Miller's resignation, saying the agency needed a change in leadership.
Miller will face questions Friday when he appears before the House Ways and Means Committee, where lawmakers plan to ask him why he didn't inform Congress about the IRS's treatment of Tea Party groups last year -- even under direct questioning.
STORY: Congressional hearing seeks to ask IRS: "Why?"
Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Thursday, "It seems pretty clear that he was aware of this ongoing targeting. And he didn't tell Congress."
And Camp said the inquiries won't stop with Tea Party groups, whose applications for tax-exempt status were delayed simply by virtue of their group name. Camp also wants to know if pro-Israel groups and individual donors to conservative causes were also targeted for invasive questioning and audits.
Werfel, 42, will start the job Wednesday and has agreed to serve in the position through September.
Werfel, who is known around the White House as Danny, will lead the IRS efforts to restore its reputation that has taken a beating since it was made public that the organization was targeting conservative groups.
He has served in a number of other positions at OMB, including deputy controller, chief of financial integrity and as a policy analyst. He also served during the George W. Bush administration as a member of the Federal Accounting and Standards Advisory Board.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who has known Werfel for more than 15 years, said Werfel has the makeup to help the agency get through a difficult period.
"He is an immensely talented and dedicated public servant who has ably served presidents of both parties. Danny has a strong record of raising his hand for -- and excelling at -- tough management assignments," Lew said in a statement.
Separately, Obama on Thursday dismissed the idea of appointing a special counsel to investigate the IRS scandal. He noted that the Treasury Department's inspector general is expected to recommend an investigation and the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation. The Senate Finance Committee is also launching an investigation into the IRS' actions.
"Between those investigations, I think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong, and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it," Obama said at a joint news conference with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
