Friday, May 17, 2013

The IRS Scandal's Sacrificial
Resignations To Cover For
The *REAL* Culprits
It's masterful the way the Obama administration tried to pull this off.  Now, it didn't work, but you have got to admire the planning that went into it.
Having known for weeks that an IRS scandal was about to break, the administration quickly sacrificed outgoing Acting Commissioner of the IRS Steven Miller - who as it so happens was leaving that job next month anyway.
The unlucky Joseph Grant - NONE of the criminal conduct happened
while he was on the job the last EIGHT DAYS but canned anyway! 

It's next move was to 'force' the resignation of the fellow presently in charge of the IRS division where this targeting of Conservative groups occurred from 2009-2012.  The problem? That guy had only been in that job for a grand total of 8 days.

Meanwhile, the two people who were in charge of that IRS division while the actual abuse was occurring?  Nothing whatsoever has happened to them.  In fact, both received huge bonuses over this time period and one of them was actually PROMOTED to a new, higher position.  
Last Friday Lois Lerner had a planted question asked to her at a conference so the IRS could get out ahead of the release of the Inspector General's investigative report that came out this Wednesday.  Lerner was attempting to do what's in media parlance called a 'controlled explosion', where the offending party breaks the bad news itself, offers an apology and minimizes their own culpability in an attempt to head off further damage.

In her statement to a stunned room of conference goers last Friday, Lerner admitted the IRS division in charge of granting tax exempt status to non-profits had deliberately targeted Conservative groups for delays and denials of their applications for tax exemption.  She then made a concerted effort to blame just a handful of low level rogue employees in one office in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Further investigation - and the release of the IG's report this Wednesday - has revealed that just about everything Lerner claimed was false.

Kevin D. Williamson at NRO's excellent 'The 9 Lies Of Lois Lerner' breaks down her falsehoods so go read it:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/348428/nine-lies-lois-lerner-kevin-williamson
Today former Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller defiantly told Congress that the IRS's deliberate targeting of certain groups due to their political beliefs was 100% legal, before backing away from that statement.
http://twitchy.com/2013/05/17/acting-irs-chief-agencys-targeting-of-conservative-groups-absolutely-not-illegal-video/?utm_source=autotweet&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter

As the scandal grows, the glaring fact that 2 patsies offered up thus far weren't in charge when the abuse occurred, while the two people who were sail on untouched will be much, much harder to justify.
   Lois Lerner                                       Sarah Ingram Hall
Riddle Me This: How in the hell do these two people STILL have
jobs at the IRS?

Sarah Ingram Hall, who was actually in charge of the tax exempt division when this criminal conduct occurred, not only hasn't been fired, she was actually promoted to the head of the IRS's new ObamaCare enforcement division.  Lerner is also still safely ensconced at her IRS job.

Last Friday when the attempt at a 'controlled explosion' was just getting underway after Lerner's revelation & apology, the IRS told reporters that no one had been fired or would even be disciplined for these abuses. Karen Tumulty at the Washington Post:
That smug attitude quickly changed, leading to the offering up of two scapegoats, but the real question is how can the IRS - and the Obama Administration - claim the scandal has been dealt with when the people most responsible for the scandal are still there?

8 comments:

  1. So much fail. Pretty hard to believe that an anti-government anti-taxes group would get heat from the IRS and geez, its not even the same as when during the Bush administration, the IRS targeted NAACP, Greenpeace, PETA, anti-war groups and liberal churches. And even that fails to be a real conspiracy as it seems to be the IRS's job to look into any group that claims tax exempt status.

    Fact: Only one-third of the groups that were passed to specialists for a closer look were "conservative." Lots of other organizations were also checked, including progressive organizations.

    Fact: No groups were audited or harassed or "targeted" or "singled out." This was about applications for special tax status being forwarded to specialists for a closer look to see if they were engaged in political activity that would disqualify them for the special tax status. This closer look is the kind of review all organization should get, but the IRS was swamped because of the flood of groups applying for a status that let them mask their donors, after Citizens United.

    Fact: No groups were harmed. There were delays while the groups were checked to see if they should have special tax status. That's it. But the rules are that they are allowed to operate as if they had that status while they waited for official approval.

    Fact: The only groups actually denied special tax status were progressive groups, not conservative groups. In 2011, during the period that "conservative groups were targeted" the New York Times carried the story, 3 Groups Denied Break by I.R.S. Are Named . The three groups? Drum roll ... "The I.R.S. denied tax exemption to the groups — Emerge Nevada, Emerge Maine and Emerge Massachusetts — because, the agency wrote in denial letters, they were set up specifically to cultivate Democratic candidates."

    Fact: The IRS commissioner in charge at the IRS at the time this happened was appointed President George W. Bush.

    Fact: According to the inspector general's report in the "majority of cases, we agreed that the applications submitted included indications of significant political campaign intervention."

    Also, the tea party is really more of a problem for the GOP than the Dems, in case you missed the last election.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So much stupidity.

    Fact #1: The IG report found numerous abuses for which the IRS apologized. They admitted they did indeed single out Conservative groups for special attention. They targeted these groups for politically partisan reasons. Liberal/Progressive groups were NOT given the same level of 'special attention', a fact the IRS has also admitted.

    Fact #2: Lois Lerner took the 5th Amendment to keep from incriminating herself in front of Congress.

    Fact #3: Anybody who believes the excuse Conservative groups were singled out for this harassment while Liberal groups weren't BUT this targeting was NOT political is too f**king stupid to be discussing current events with anybody.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FACT: As Republicans keep claiming some kind of an IRS Cover Up (by the Left), It Turns Out Darrell Issa Knew That the IRS was looking into these Highly Questionable 501(C4) Request Back In Mid-2012.

      So... What exactly was Representative (R-CA 49th District) Issa's motivation for NOT disclosing what he knew about the IRS' activities, especially as he appears to have no problem looking into aka 'politicizing' every other little thing that happens regarding the Left?

      Why do you think that is? I'm not giving you any hints!

      Delete
    2. The IRS did it's own internal investigation and kept it's results secret.

      The Inspector General was doing his own investigation and he wasn't sharing his info with Issa.

      So to answer your question: Issa was aware there was a problem, but since the IRS wasn't taking, and the IG was doing his own investigation, he did not have access to the information.

      Once Lerner tried to 'get ahead' of the release of the IG's report by making her apology for the abuse, and once that report itself was released last week, he had enough evidence to launch an inquiry.

      You actually needed someone to explain this to you?

      Delete
    3. This IRS scandal is about the Government of the United States treating American citizens differently according to whether they’re conservative or liberal.

      Sophistry'll get you nowhere.

      Delete
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  4. Of course the guilty received promotions. The Obama White House is scared some IRS official will role over on them, if they punish that official. What they're going to do when the House starts to hand out immunity, will be interesting.

    ReplyDelete