Posted on 05/10/2013 2:47:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Conservative groups have rejected an Internal Revenue Service apology for unjustifiably scrutinizing tax-exempt conservative groups during the 2012 election cycle. The IRS apology has seemingly validated conservatives' fears of politically motivated regulation.
House Republican leaders, meanwhile, have vowed to investigate.
Lois Lerner, the director the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt organizations, said that organizations had been given additional scrutiny if their applications included the words "Tea Party" or "patriot." The practice originated with "low-level" employees in Cincinnati, according to an Associated Press report.
In a press conference on Friday, Lerner called the actions of these employees "absolutely inappropriate."
"They didn't do it because of any political bias," Lerner said, adding that singling out groups with specific names was an ill-thought-out organizational "shortcut."
"It was an error in judgment and it wasn't appropriate but that's what they did," she said.
"We've now corrected these issues, and we don't expect that any of these will be repeated going forward."
Despite the apology, conservative groups are now seizing on the news, which they say proves their long-standing complaints of mistreatment by the IRS.
"President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots.
Tea Party Express founder Sal Russo told ABC News that his group, formed as a PAC, never heard from the IRS but did hear from smaller Tea-Party groups that complained of government scrutiny.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Who wants to be the Republican Presidential nominee for 2016?
Whoever it is, they will investigate this and if warranted, go after this full-throttle. They will push to have top people at the IRS named and publicly fired, and make sure this is headline news.
Its a winning issue for whoever wants to grab it.
I didn’t hear about anybody being FIRED in the IRS “apology”.
Seemingly indeed.
I see. Can she show any cases of non-politically-motivated enhanced attention given solely to organizations of anti-rights collectivist leftist asshat drones? Or do the non-politically-motivated "mistakes" befall only those on the right?
The IRS will probably dig up some low-level flunky and blame the whole thing on him, and then fire him. And once the furor dies down, they’ll go back to business as usual. Harassing and intimidating certain organizations and businesses because they don’t like their political views. Only they’ll be sneakier about it. Move along, nothing to see here.
For archive purposes:
http://watergate.info/impeachment/articles-of-impeachment
Article 2
Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.
This conduct has included one or more of the following:
He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be intitiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.
He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; he did direct, authorize, or permit the use of information obtained thereby for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; and he did direct the concealment of certain records made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of electronic surveillance.
What's the biggest group of Conservatives in the nation? The Tea Party people.
And what group is chock full of Patriots? Yup, the TPM.
And blaming in on low level employees...this kind of stuff originates at the top, where the fish rots first.
The fish with the big ears.
They will fire a couple of grunts at the bottom of the ladder and the ones that really did this in top positions---doing the bidding of the White House and the DNC---will skate.
I think this is especially important.
In theory, just about any offense should be subject to the acceptance of a sincere apology.
But it is hard to believe that the apology is truly sincere, if no concrete steps are taken to ensure that such a practice never happens again...
There ain’t enough lamp posts in D.C. To handle all the scoundrels who should be hanging by the neck from them.
This kind of executive abuse should be prosecutable. Congress should be all over this abuse of power by zero and his henchmen.
Ever donate to Heritage or Hillsdale?
If so, your death panel will see you now.
Precisely. Let's see which conservative "leaders" SPEAK OUT about all this crap, and which ones don't.
Any GOP candidate who can't forcefully rebuke this runaway administration, and who remains silent on these government crimes, and goes along to get along, will NOT get my vote.
Government SCANDAL after government SCANDAL. Nothing but corruption. Maybe I’m just waking up, but, as an American, this is more than just embarrassing.
Or "Progressive" or "Citizens" or "Earth"...
“Maybe I’m just waking up, but, as an American, this is more than just embarrassing.”
Hussein has turned the U.S. into a third-world country.
“...”They didn’t do it because of any political bias,” Lerner said
What a load of BS that is! I would bet any money that every single one of those low level employees voted for obama. They need to lose their jobs!
These are the actions of mobsters, Nazis and those who desire to control everything and everyone, using fines, audits, taxes, manipulation and threats of investigation as their weapons.
The government has become a very evil entity.
Screw all of this apology garbage. I don’t want any damn apology, I want heads to roll. people fired, even arrested. I want to know WHO GAVE THE ORDER!!!!!
Kill the damn government corruption.
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