IRS targeted ONLY conservatives, NO progressives
We’ve had some exchanges on our site over the IRS harassment of conservative groups. Some of our more liberal commentators have insisted that progressive groups, also, were targeted.
It turns out that part is not true. Only conservative groups — that is, opponents of President Obama, who runs the IRS — were targeted. The Daily Caller reported:
IRS agents testified before Congress that the agency’s political targeting did not apply to progressive groups as Democrats and the media have claimed, according to a bombshell new staff report prepared by the House Oversight Committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa.
IRS agents testified before Oversight that ACORN groups were scrutinized because the agency thought they were old organizations applying as new ones. Emerge America was scrutinized for potential “improper private benefit.” No evidence exists that the IRS requested additional information from any Occupy Wall Street group.
“Only seven applications in the IRS backlog contained the word ‘progressive,’ all of which were then approved by the IRS, while Tea Party groups received unprecedented review and experienced years-long delays. While some liberal-oriented groups were singled out for scrutiny, evidence shows it was due to non-political reasons,” according to the Oversight staff report, which was obtained by The Daily Caller.
“[T]he Administration and congressional Democrats have seized upon the notion that the IRS’s targeting was not just limited to conservative applicants,” the report states. “These Democratic claims are flat-out wrong and have no basis in any thorough examination of the facts. Yet, the Administration’s chief defenders continue to make these assertions in a concerted effort to deflect and distract from the truth about the IRS’s targeting of tax-exempt applicants.”
“[T]here is simply no evidence that any liberal or progressive group received enhanced scrutiny because its application reflected the organization’s political views,” the report stated.
This is more evidence that America is sliding downward into a Third World, one-party state.
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The Daily Caller? Wow, John, you must really be getting hard up for “reliable” sources.
As if CalTURDS and “CalTURDS Responds” are the beacon of truth Steve.
One who refers to CalPERS as CalTurds, like a 15 yr.-old, has no credibility at the start of any debate. If you think CalPERS is dispensing false information–state your case and let someone in the know investigate your charges.
Steve: I’m glad you agree with me that the Daily Caller is a highly reliable source. They just reported direct testimony from the hearing.
It’s a “journalism venture”
“journalism venture providing original investigative reports and news stories”
Either party using the IRS for harassment is very misguided and that kind of misconduct has the potential to wreck the entire country.
Nixon used the IRS in the late 60’s and early 70’s to target adversaries, it was despicable conduct from any government employee, but the friggen President…it shows how low Nixon had sunk.
The agency is charged with reviewing applications of the, respective, groups that are requesting a certain tax status, and making a determination. That is a far cry from harrassment. If I were the reviewer, the first groups I would look at would be the Tea Party and a couple prominent churches.
Maybe Republicans are bad guys and need more scrutiny for national defense purposes……has to be a plausible reason!
The old car thief didn’t bother to include any statements from the minority leader of his committee, but they don’t seem to support Issa’s claims.
“The oversight panel’s ranking member, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., quickly released a rebuttal to Issa’s report. “Chairman Issa has in his possession — right now — IRS documents that show definitively that both progressive and conservative groups were highlighted for scrutiny,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the chairman insists on cherry-picking evidence and simply disregarding documents that directly contradict his partisan narrative, instead promoting misleading claims that hurt his own credibility and that of the committee.”
Cummings’ examples include a 2010 IRS PowerPoint presentation that Issa has seen showing images of a donkey and an elephant to instruct IRS screeners to look for the term “progressive” alongside “tea party” when reviewing applications. Notes from a July 2010 screening workshop, he said, show that groups with “Emerge” and “Progressive” in their titles were flagged for further review along with “9/12 Project” and “Rally Patriots.” In addition, he said, tea party and progressive groups were all sent to the same secondary screening group for additional review.
The Republicans’ report, Cummings continued, “ignores that fact” that a self-identified Republican member of the IRS screening group told the committee how the screening terms were developed and that “he knew of no White House involvement, and that neither he nor his staff were motivated by politics.”
First rule, literally, of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics:
“— Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.”
But, if you’re a “journalistic venture”, you can cut and paste without bothering to ………………..verify.
Ahhh Douglas– WELL said—- this is only a “venture”
Hi Tardsly! Still contributing to the overall IQ deficiency in California I see.
Conservative groups should be targeted the most since they are the biggest TAX CHEATERS!
Concervative groups were seeking approval to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. This would require them to be “social welfare,” not political, operations. There are significant advantages to being a 501(c)(4). These groups don’t pay taxes; they don’t have to disclose their donors—unlike traditional political organizations, such as political-action committees. In return for the tax advantage and the secrecy, the 501(c)(4) organizations must refrain from traditional partisan political activity, like endorsing candidates.many conservative organizations, nominally 501(c)(4)s, were all but explicitly political in their work. For example, Americans for Prosperity, which was funded in part by the Koch Brothers, was an instrumental force in helping the Republicans hold the House of Representatives. In every meaningful sense, groups like Americans for Prosperity were operating as units of the Republican Party.
Why do we readers have to always come up with the cold hard facts??? So, the IRS was doing the right thing and going after these CHEATERS!!
NTHEOC: Thank you for making my argument that the IRS should be abolished entirely.
John– I think you’d like Somalia– NO taxes– NO IRS— paradise!
John– I think you’d like Somalia– NO taxes– NO IRS— paradise!
No Tardsly….a sane man would have to give it serious consideration!
Ted: You’re wrong about Somalia. The U.S. government, using my tax dollars stolen from me by the vampire IRS, wrecked the place.
See this: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/vicious-cycle-intervention-somal-7265
The report’s conclusion: “Sadly, America’s history of intervention in Somalia aptly demonstrates the resiliency of unintended consequences. Although developments in Somalia have some observers arguing that America should become more involved, the more reasonable conclusion to draw—looking at the historical record—is that America has tried and failed repeatedly to transform Somalia at an acceptable cost.”
Well– I beg to differ John— while I am sure our influence has been bad there I think you’ll find it a doomer paradise— read the link and learn–
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Somalia.html#b
and you’ll LOVE this John!
http://www.news.com.au/world/tax-collecting-a-deadly-job-in-somalia-five-taxmen-killed-this-year/story-fndir2ev-1226687832457
I have just been reading headlines about a 9-month old baby in Pakistan that has been charged with murder, due to his belonging to family members who participated in a riot. His family has tried to hide him, but he was found and fingerprinted. He is being held with bail and has a court date.
With stories like this, including sorts of other atrocities around the globe, who in America should have the gaul to complain about our system of government and, especially the IRS!
SeeSaw, the USA has the largest Prison Industrial Complex in the world. With less than 5% of the worlds population we have almost 30% of the worlds prisoners. You can continue to bellow about how great you have it here spending the labor of others, but we are actually the worlds largest police state. : )
Bunkeroo……the snide remarks are gosh…..Teddy is fair and balanced…..an intellect doomers can’t cope with….
TCS is a RAGWUS feeder. just like you!! 🙂
thanks U