[Democrat_media]

what are the chances that 10% of the people on 3 small lists are audited. not much . this is tyranny

The IRS is supposed to RANDOMLY audit people after they completed their tax return. this was not random . the IRS audited those people because they were on the “donor” lists that the IRS asked tea party groups for. these were grass roots groups trying to form

[Milton Miteybad]

I agree that the percentage audited is far too high, given the known political affiliations of these donor/taxpayers. But some of them are going to be prime candidates for audit anyway, just because their AGI falls above a certain level. Many of these taxpayers will be successful self-employed professionals who might be inclined to gravitate toward the Tea Party.

Not every candidate for audit is "randomly" selected, and it is an error in judgment to believe otherwise.

[nitzy]

I think many people understand what you are saying and agree that if that is the case it is terrible. I think what they are also saying is that there is a chance that it might not be the case. The most important thing though is that it should be relatively easy to determine one way or the other. It is simply a matter of math.

There are certain generally accepted characteristics that make someone more likely to be audited. The exact percentages of how much more likely are statistics that can be known. We should look at them. If you were to learn that for people who claimed charitable deductions the audit rate went from X% to XX% and then you learned that tea party members were X% more likely to donate to charity then it might make more sense why the tea party donors where audited more. There are many other factors including income, dependents claimed, the type of form used, if filing as a small business, etc...I would assume that tea partiers are more likely to own a business, have children, have higher income and fall into other categories that could make them more likely to be audited. THE POINT IS THAT I DON'T KNOW BUT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW.

So often, there are those on our side who go off half cocked and look like idiots when the facts end up showing that they don't know what they are talking about.

Do I think Obama would do something like this? --Yes

Do I think that his administration abuses power nearly every chance it gets? -- Yes

Do I think that they did it in this case? -- Probably, but with a little more information we can be sure.