Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings says it’s time to stop investigating the latest IRS shenanigans. According to him, closed-door interviews with IRS staffers prove that no White House or other Washington officials were involved in targeting the applications for tax-exempt status of conservative groups for special obstructionist attention.
Whew! Crisis over.
But the congressman is ignoring a few things.
For example, history. Everything we are now learning (visit TaxProf Blog for the latest news roundups) indicates that this latest shocking scandal only confirms what we already knew about the Internal Revenue Service. The outfit does not play nice. It is not animated by unwavering concern for truth, justice, and even-handed enforcement of its welter of wretched regulations.
More immediately, the congressman is ignoring the fact that the IRS’s ideological targeting is not resolvable into the actions of one or two frazzled clerks in Cincinnati. (Even if some reporters have valiantly striven to show, in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, “How One Overworked IRS Worker Ignited the Tea-Party Targeting Scandal.”)
We know that many DC-based officials linked to the targeting of conservative groups quit, were transferred, or were put on administrative leave right after the scandal broke. We know that IRS employees in Cincinnati have testified that the DC office especially requested Tea Party files. We know that DC lawyers both reviewed the intrusive questionnaires sent to Tea Party groups and drafted many of the questions. Etc. All irrelevant?
Come on, Cummings.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “IRS Case Closed! The End! Letsmoveon!”
OF COURSE – IT IS IRRELEVANT. IT IS HAPPENING/HAPPENED UNDER OBAMA – SO IT IS IRRELEVANT.
HE IS THE SAVIOR.
HAD THIS HAPPENED, SAY, UNDER BUSH (EITHER) THE PRESS ( AND THE DEMS) WOULD BE DEMANDING SPECIAL PROSECUTORS UP THE BUTT; HEARINGS AD INFINITUM, ETC.
BUT OBAMA IS THE GREAT ONE.
IT IS OVER
The government including the IRS always believe their abuses are irrelevant or for the public good. So it was in 1775, in 2013 and forever.
Throw the elected bums out in the next election, change the tax code to eliminate the need for, and discretion of, the IRS.
If this was so up-and-up then why did it have to be done behind closed doors?
Congress keeps claiming ignorance of this activity. This was their job! What they are claiming is that they are incompetent.
They took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution. To keep us free.
In my state, if we swear an oath to the authority of the state and end up lying, we go to jail. And it’s a felony.
The lady who was spearheading the targeting of conservative groups, Sarah Hall Ingram, was transfered to another department in the IRS. She will now lead the IRS enforcment of Obamacare via the IRS. These violations of the Constitution were felonies. Rather than being charged, she has received bonuses.
Some Democrats are pointing out that this started under Doug Schulman, who was appointed by Bush. Yet Schulman donated money to the DNC and appears to be a Democrat, but I’ve heard liberals call him a Republican. His wife works for Public Campaign which is a liberal organization. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/carolplattliebau/2013/06/03/doug-shulmans-highly-partisan-wife-n1611860
Why did Bush appoint such a partisan of the liberal persuasion? It was either very dumb (he might have been ignorant of Schulman’s politics) or perhaps being a big government Republican, perhaps he didn’t like the Tea Party either (we know Rove doesn’t like them) and let him target the Tea Party. I doubt we’ll ever know.
[…] This is par. A few IRS officers have been transferred or even resigned following revelations about how IRS harassed conservative applicants for tax-exempt status. But the FBI has dropped its non-investigation of evil deeds with respect to which a perpetrator like Lois Lerner feels she must plead the Fifth and depart the scene with only her freedom and her $50,000 pension. Others also see nothing to see. […]
[…] implying coordination between Democrat Elijah Cummings of the House Oversight Committee (of “nothing to see here” fame) and the IRS. After applying for tax-exempt status, True the Vote received sets of nearly […]