The Plot Thickens

There are so many outrageous aspects to the IRS targeting conservative groups matter that it’s hard to decide even where to begin.  Since the story broke a week or so ago, it’s been one revelation after another.  We’ve already had two House Congressional hearings.

Since Attorney General Eric Holder was already scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee just after the story broke, he was the first top Obama official to be on the hot seat.  (I happen to be a member of that committee.)  He did his best to bob and weave and give non-answer answers to the probing questions he was asked.

Since I’m one of the more senior members on the committee, I got to ask my questions fairly early in the hearing.  I focused particular attention on the Cincinnati aspects of the case – that the Obama Administration seemed to be trying to spin the line that this had all “happened out in Cincinnati, and how were we supposed to know what was going on way out there.”  I pointed out to Attorney General Holder that the Cincinnati IRS office answers to the D.C. office, which is under the Treasury Department, which is under and answerable to the President of the United States.  Holder reluctantly agreed.

I also pressed the Attorney General on my view that there has been a pattern under the Obama Administration to “refuse to take responsibility for its failures, avoid blame, and point fingers in everybody else’s direction.”  Not surprisingly, the Attorney General responded that he did not share my view.

The real question is, how high up did knowledge of what the IRS was up to go?  It’s hard to believe that it was just a few rogue IRS employees in our fair city who did this on their own.  That’s just not the way the IRS, or any other government bureaucracy for that matter, operates.  Something as big as targeting conservative groups for special discriminatory treatment, must have been ordered from higher up the food chain.  Just how high up is still unknown.

The second Congressional hearing took place last Friday before the House Ways and Means Committee (the tax-writing committee which has jurisdiction over the IRS.)  The Administration witness was Steven Miller, the acting head of the IRS.  The Obama Administration made a big deal out of firing this guy just days after the scandal broke.  However, the truth is he was scheduled to leave his position in the next month or so anyway, so his sacking really wasn’t the decisive action the Obama Administration attempted to make it appear.

His appearance before the Ways and Means Committee was an embarrassment.  Most questions posed to him by committee members were met with an “I don’t know” or “we’ll get back to you on that,” (even though HE won’t be there.)  He reminded me a lot of Sergeant Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes fame who’s tag line was “I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing!”  Perhaps his lamest comment was when he admitted that the IRS had “provided horrible customer service.”  Ya think?

And his claim that even though it was overwhelmingly conservative Tea Party and Patriot groups who were targeted for harsher treatment by the IRS, it was not politically motivated, and there was no targeting going on.  WHAT?!

He also ludicrously claimed that the non-targeting targeting was merely “a foolish mistake” and that the IRS employees were “just trying to be more efficient in their workload selections.”  Aaaaahhhhhaaaa!!  I think my head’s going to explode.

One important thing we did learn from this awful witness was the devious way the IRS went about breaking the story.  Knowing that an Inspector General’s report would soon be released, and blow the lid off what the IRS had been up to, Lois Lerner, a top IRS official, was chosen to leak the story.  Lerner was asked a question by a person at a Bar Association function whom she and the IRS claimed was just a random questioner.  Turns out the questioner was an IRS plant, not a random questioner at all.  (As I finish this week’s blog, it has just been revealed that Ms. Lerner intends to take The 5th at today’s congressional hearing.)  The bottom line is, you really can’t believe anything these people say, (or don’t say.)

A few more outrages.

Not only did the IRS delay granting tax-exempt status to conservative groups (in many cases until after the 2012 election was over and Barack Obama was safely re-elected President), but they also demanded information from their victims that was highly inappropriate.  The IRS wanted lists of donors, Facebook posts, and lists of books people were reading, among other intrusive and irrelevant things.  The IRS was clearly trampling all over the First Amendment rights of American citizens – conservative Americans that is – liberals (progressives) were given a pass – (they, after all, would be voting right in the upcoming election!)

And Sarah Hall Ingram.  Who is Sarah Hall Ingram?  She was the person who was in charge of the IRS tax-exempt operation that inappropriately, and probably illegally, targeted conservative groups for “special” treatment.  Well, she’s no longer doing that.  But guess what she IS doing now.  Why she’s running the IRS program that will be overseeing Obamacare!  You can’t make this stuff up.  And these are the people we want controlling our healthcare?

And finally, it wasn’t just conservative GROUPS that were targeted by the IRS.  It was conservative, Romney-supporting individuals.  I give you Frank Vandersloot.  Mr. Vandersloot is an Idaho businessman who also happened to be co-chair of Mitt Romney’s presidential finance committee.  He was one of eight Romney backers who were slimed on Obama’s campaign website; but it didn’t stop there.  He was then audited by the IRS, twice, and his business was audited by the Labor Department.  None of this had ever happened before he became known as a top Romney supporter.  (By the way, after spending $80,000 in attorney’s fees defending himself, it was determined that Mr. Vandersloot had done nothing wrong, and everything against him was dropped.)

But let’s face it, this could clearly have a chilling effect on others who might think about expressing their First Amendment Rights, and supporting other than the Obama team.  And perhaps that’s just what was intended.

I’ll stop there.  I’m getting mad just thinking about the abuses of this corrupt Administration.

We’re Americans.  We don’t take orders from the government.  The government is supposed to answer to us.  We shouldn’t have to fear our government.  But many of us do.  And apparently for good reason.

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