They were sorry.
It was a rogue agent in the Cincinnati office.
We didn’t know about it until we read about it in the paper.
I did nothing wrong and broke no laws but, I’m pleading the 5th so I won’t incriminate myself.
All the targeting stopped in 2012.
THESE are the things we’ve been told regarding the IRS targeting of Conservatives and Conservative groups and it’s all a load of crap.
NONE of those statements are true.
Since the IRS had been directly targeting Conservatives for harassment since 2010, coincidently, about the exact same time as the Tea Party was coming into its own, it’s better than a fair bet they weren’t at ALL sorry.
Their “admission” also by coincidence, came out right AFTER 3 whistle-blowers spilled a substantial amount of beans regarding Benghazi.
It wasn’t remorse that brought out that apology, it was timing spurred by a carefully planted question at an otherwise nothing-burger conference.
Sorry?
No way in hell.
It was a rogue agent.
No…Low level IRS agents spend their days on mundane tasks waiting for Friday at 5 and the next 3 day weekend. They’re just doing their time.
No…THIS was DIRECTED from higher up the chain of command.
There are several main players in this…
1st, there was Sarah Hall Ingram. SHE was the IRS COMMISSIONER who oversaw the division that processes tax-exempt organizations.
She’s not there anymore.
SHE got a BIG promotion.
Sarah Hall Ingram is NOW heading the IRS division charged with OBAMACARE enforcement.
How secure do YOU feel about YOUR future healthcare NOW???
And then there is Lois Lerner who worked just under Ingram.
Lois Lerner went before a Congressional committee a week ago and said she had NOTHING to do with the targeting and that she didn’t break any laws. She claims to be squeaky clean. Pure as the driven snow.
THEN…She pleaded the 5th to avoid…INCRIMINATING herself in what it was she had just claimed to have had not one single thing to do with.
Lerner is now vacationing on the taxpayer’s dime, collecting her $177,000.000 salary as she has been put on PAID administrative leave.
We’re paying for that by the way…
Obama claimed HE didn’t find out about it until he read it in the paper.
That flies in the face of believability because, Douglas Shulman, head of the IRS had some 118 white house meetings.
I’m telling you, the closer the IRS gets to the bottom of the barrel, the closer this all gets to Obama.
Naturally, Shulman claims that he never, not even once, mentioned the targeting or the internal investigation OF it at any of those meetings. It never crossed his mind.
During last week’s questioning, perhaps Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan said it best…“One hundred and eighteen times you were at the White House, 132 Members of Congress contact you about this information, 42 major news stories about this very subject and you told Congress a year ago, ‘I can give you assurances nothing is going on, everything is wonderful, we’re not targeting conservative groups,”That is why the American people are like, ‘This is unbelievable.’”
Unbelievable is an understatement.
It’s 100% bullcrap.
Then, you have Steven Miller…the now former “ACTING” Commissioner of the IRS who told the congressional committee that the targeting abuse of power by the IRS was, “foolish mistakes” carried out by “people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection.”
In recent years, Miller had been questioned over and over again by congressional Members regarding the targeting and he never, NEVER revealed such a program was under way and then said, in last week’s hearing that, “I did not mislead Congress. I answered the questions as they were asked.”
There must have been a sale on manure at the Home “DESPOT” and everybody is now spreading their haul.
But that’s just the BEGINNING of it.
Now we have counsel for more than 2 DOZEN Conservative groups with letters of harassment coming to them from IRS offices from sea to shining sea INCLUDING from the WASHINGTON DC IRS OFFICE.
So much for it being confined to just the Cincinnati office.
We now have harassment letters stamped with the signature of Lois Lerner who claims she had no knowledge of any of it.
We ALSO now know that to this day, conservative groups are STLL being harassed by the IRS after we were told it all ENDED a YEAR ago.
So…Conservative groups were TARGETED for political reasons by arguably THE most powerful government agency in the country.
That’s bad.
Right down the line, we’ve been lied to ABOUT that targeting by a parade of IRS weasels.
That’s worse.
Laws have been broken in the process OF the targeting.
That’s CRIMINAL.
Could it get ANY worse?
Yep.
NOW…The IRS, Knowing that they’re in DEEP, BIG trouble…
HAS HIRED A VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE ATTORNEY TO COUNSEL THEM AND QUITE POSSIBLY DEFEND THEM AGAINST A GROWING NUMBER OF LAWSUITS AND GUESS WHAT?
THE TAXPAYERS…INCLUDING THE VERY PEOPLE AND GROUPS THAT WERE TARGETED BY THE IRS…ARE PAYING FOR THE ATTORNEY TO DEFEND THE IRS!!!!!!!
But wait…There’s MORE…
LOIS LERNER LAWYERED UP LAST WEEK BEFORE SHE PLEADED THE 5TH AND…WE’RE PAYING HER LEGAL BILLS TOO!!!!!!!
Let’s see here…If YOU get audited BY the IRS does the IRS pay YOUR legal bills?
Nope.
If you WIN against the IRS does the IRS pay your legal costs?
No way.
Now…Put yourself in the shoes of those Conservative groups which were targeted and harassed by the IRS since 2010.
Currently, there are 27 different groups engaged in legal action against the IRS and that number will most certainly grow.
THEY have to pay THEIR legal costs to fight AGAINST the IRS…AND…They are also, via their taxpayer dollars…PAYING THE LEGAL COSTS FOR THE IRS TO FIGHT THE VERY LAWSUITS THEY ARE BRINGING!!!
And now we know exactly what FORMER “ACTING” IRS Commissioner, Steven Miller…The man who RESIGNED about 2 weeks before he was GOING TO LEAVE HIS POST as the “ACTING” Commissioner meant when HE said…UNDER OATH BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE…
“I can say generally we provided horrible customer service here.”
In this corrupt administration…An act of TERRORISM is “WORKPLACE VIOLENCE and FELONIES…PERPETRATED BY THE IRS AGAINST A DEFINED SEGMENT OF THE TAXPAYERS BASED SOLELY ON POLITICAL IDEOLOGY IS…
“HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!”
When I get “HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE” from a business…I make damn sure that business never gets another dime of my money.
Just sayin’.
Lois Lerner was appointed as head of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division during the Bush administration, in 2006.
Lerner began her legal career as a staff attorney in the Department of Justice’s criminal division before joining the Federal Election Commission as an assistant general counsel in 1981 (during the Reagan Administration)
She spent 20 years at the FEC, where she was appointed head of the Enforcement Division in 1986 (Reagan again) and then acting general counsel for six months in 2001 (Bush).
James Bowen,
Somehow, you forgot to mention that Lerner’s husband is a BID Obama supporter and his law firm HOSTED a voter registration organizing event for the 2012 Obama re-election campaign, PRAISED Obama’s policy work, and had one of its partners APPOINTED BY OBAMA to a key ambassadorship.
But…Nice try.