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Confusion and Staff Troubles Rife at I.R.S. Office in Ohio
NY Times ^ | May 18, 2013 | NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI and MICHAEL LUO

Posted on 05/19/2013 5:41:58 AM PDT by Pharmboy

During the summer of 2010, the dozen or so accountants and tax agents of Group 7822 of the Internal Revenue Service office in Cincinnati got a directive from their manager. A growing number of organizations identifying themselves as part of the Tea Party had begun applying for tax exemptions, the manager said, advising the workers to be on the lookout for them and other groups planning to get involved in elections.

“I don’t believe there’s any such thing as rogue agents,” said Bonnie Esrig, a former senior manager in the I.R.S. office in Cincinnati.

The specialists, hunched over laptops on the office’s fourth floor, rarely discussed politics, one former supervisor said. Low-level employees in what many in the I.R.S. consider a backwater, they processed thousands of applications a year, mostly from charities like private schools or hospitals.

For months, the Tea Party cases sat on the desk of a lone specialist, who used “political sounding” criteria — words like “patriots,” “we the people” — as a way to search efficiently through the flood of applications for groups that might not quality for exemptions, according to the I.R.S. inspector general. “Triage,” the agency’s acting chief described it.

As a grim-faced President Obama denounced the “inexcusable” actions of the I.R.S. last week and lawmakers of both parties lined up in Washington on Friday to accuse it of an array of misconduct, everything seemed so clear: the nation’s tax agency had deliberately targeted conservative activists, violating the public trust — and perhaps the law.

While there are still many gaps in the story of how the I.R.S. scandal happened, interviews with current and former employees and with lawyers who dealt with them, along with a review of I.R.S. documents, paint a more muddled...alienated from the broader I.R.S. culture and given little direction.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Ohio; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: gettherope; impeachnow; irs; loislerner; mediabias; ohio; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; waronterror
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To: Pharmboy
It is not yet clear which manager in Cincinnati asked for an initial keyword search of Tea Party applications, Congressional aides said.

Huh. Yet these procedures coincided with the presidential election.

The New York Times isn't bad, but Scotts toilet paper is a better value.

21 posted on 05/19/2013 6:08:46 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: Pharmboy
“It would be tragic to see the I.R.S. be debilitated by this,” he said. “Its work is too important.”

Get over yourselves...

22 posted on 05/19/2013 6:11:20 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: Pharmboy

Lemme get this straight -Obummer, the EXECUTIVE in charge of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of Govt., takes no responsibility for Benghazi, IRS, SEAL crash etc., but a couple of years ago VOILA!

2010=President Barack Obama meeting with BP EXECUTIVES at the White House in June 2010 to discuss the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. On 1 October 2010, Bob ...

,


23 posted on 05/19/2013 6:11:45 AM PDT by bunkerhill7 (("The Second Amendment has no limits on firepower"-NY State Senator Kathleen A. Marchione.))
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To: SueRae
Start with the low level worker and move up the food chain. Reading lists? WHO CAME UP WITH THOSE LISTS OF QUESTIONS.?

It's so easy, even a congressman could do it. So why aren't they?

24 posted on 05/19/2013 6:12:47 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: bunkerhill7

Just imagine how the guy feels whose name appeared in question #26

It’s like the IRS Gestapo.


25 posted on 05/19/2013 6:20:42 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: Pharmboy

“The Times spinning as fast as it can in a front page news story in its Sunday edition”

Same pap on the front cover of the L.A Times this morning. I found exactly nothing on Fridays testimony in the Sat. edition. I guess they needed 24 hours to get their heads together with the NYT on what the spin would be.


26 posted on 05/19/2013 6:28:07 AM PDT by DAC21
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Aint that the truth.

I like this sentence:For months, the Tea Party cases sat on the desk of a lone specialist, who used “political sounding”

One person did all of this? Bull -—I say Bull Big Daddy.

Mendacity.


27 posted on 05/19/2013 6:29:08 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: Pharmboy
More New York Times 'journalism' in the tradition of Walter Duranty and Herbert Matthews.
28 posted on 05/19/2013 6:40:27 AM PDT by Will88
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To: Pharmboy

LOL...you forgot the barf alert!!


29 posted on 05/19/2013 6:55:34 AM PDT by BerniesFriend (Sarah Palin-"Lord knows she's attractive" says bitter Andrea Mitchell and the rest of the MSM)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

This quote from the article pathetically laughable:

“Not all conservative groups that got special scrutiny received follow-up requests for additional information. But some liberal groups did: Progress Texas, part of a national network of liberal advocacy groups, . . .”

Also amusing are many of the comments at the NYTs site.


30 posted on 05/19/2013 7:25:36 AM PDT by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
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To: Pharmboy
Boy, this really inspires confidence in the IRS's ability to administer the Obamacare directives:

“The I.R.S. is pretty dysfunctional to begin with, and this case brought all those dysfunctions to their worst,” said Paul Streckfus, a former I.R.S. employee who runs a newsletter devoted to tax-exempt organizations. “People were coming and going, asking for advice and not getting it, and sometimes forgetting the cases existed.”

The IRS is a monster and to entrust it with even more responsibilities and power is cutting our own throats.

31 posted on 05/19/2013 7:37:02 AM PDT by randita
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To: Pharmboy

Ah, yes. The IRS targeting political enemies was all just a matter of incompetence. You know, like Watergate was all just a big misunderstanding. Oh, wait! That’s not right. Nixon was a Republican. He was evil. Obama is just an incompetent boob and his IRS is just in chaos, not evil. I fell SO much better now that I understand the difference, especially when I realize that boob Obama’s chaotic, incompetent, not-evil IRS will be administering my health care plan. Don’t ya’ll feel better too, now?


32 posted on 05/19/2013 7:42:42 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Pharmboy

I would like to know the racial demographics of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division. We already know the members of the National Treasury Employees Union overwhelmingly support the Democrat party in their political contributions. I surmise that the Cincinnati staffing includes disproportional numbers of Holder’s people. I doubt there was anyone in that culture who would voice an objection to the targeting that occurred even though it was blatantly obvious. Plus, they were being pressured by Democrat members of congress to do more of the targeting. Almost a perfect storm of governmental political corruption. The IRS is terrifying, but think of the targeting that may be occurring in the myriad of government agencies.


33 posted on 05/19/2013 7:55:36 AM PDT by Temujinshordes
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To: Pharmboy

Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-Ohio-

Hmmm, it’s not like Ohio was ground-zero in the last election or anything.

It’s just a coincidence./sarc


34 posted on 05/19/2013 8:04:54 AM PDT by Smokeyblue
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To: Pharmboy
The first response to the article, copied below, is actually very interesting, and I did follow the instructions to obtain the letter from Miller to Hatch.

Cmus Boston

I find the Q & A contained in the letter dated April 26, 2012 between Steven Miller and Senator Orin Hatch (Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Finance) to be most interesting, and urge all readers here to click on the pdf file listed as footnote #46 in Wikipedia [whose subject title is "501(c) Organization".] Of particular significance to me is the nature of Senator Hatch's questions, written less to elicit clear, objective responses (which Mr. Miller does extremely well, given the semantic maze he must deal with in clearly explaining 501(c)(4)), than to complain - with some degree of subtlety, to be sure - that his Conservative social welfare organizations aren't being treated very well (i.e. given immediate tax-exempt status) by the IRS.

By means of the very last question (more a demand than a question)Senator Hatch gives himself away. Reading it was for me an "Aha!" moment, and I was happy to see Mr. Miller responding with a straight face.

I certainly hope Treasury officials will study the contents of this letter, and inquire what the nature, if any, of Senator Hatch's response was once he and his counsel had studied the detailed nature of Mr. Miller's replies to The Honorable's inquiries.

We can all learn much if we take a little time in reading this correspondence. Again, click on Wikipedia's footnote #46.

May 19, 2013 at 7:10 a.m.

Most interesting is this sentence in the letter to Mr. Hatch: http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/ranking/download/?id=e67b4d42-c368-48fb-bc87-720f62c86ad4

"The applications are sent to unassigned inventory, where they are held until a revenue agent with the appropriate level of experience for the issues involved in the matter is available to further develop the case."

In other words, an appropriate ring of Dante's hell.

35 posted on 05/19/2013 8:05:04 AM PDT by Excellence (9/11 was an act of faith.)
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To: Temujinshordes

“The IRS is terrifying, but think of the targeting that may be occurring in the myriad of government agencies.”

Rush said it well last week. This is the true face of Liberalism on display, the natural outgrowth of its own culture of control.

The ultimate end, if unchecked, would be tyranny.

Thank God the agenda is being exposed.


36 posted on 05/19/2013 8:06:02 AM PDT by Rennes Templar (The true Obama persona is emerging, the one from his first Presidential debate.)
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To: Venturer

I can believe one person was assigned to this. Government inefficiency at it’s best.

What I can’t believe is that management did not know this, condone it, and cover it up. It is the job of the supervisors to monitor this and I am sure they were aware of the problem and realized the “political advantage” of allowing the problem to fester.

If you want to screw someone in a bureaucracy you simply assign inadequate or incapable staff to the problem and the rules of bureaucracy will screw it up. Add in a few lawyers to “give additional guidance” and all of a sudden you have created the Department of Motor Vehicles. Simple - saw it many times in the military with the worst of the necessary offices staffed with civilians who didn’t care.

It’s still a scandal. One thing I will give the article credit for is recognizing the problem foisted upon it by congress. Congress is infamous for unintended consequences with legislation and this is a perfect example. The comments to this article really piss me off. The Tea Party used the same “social” crap that leftists organizations have used for years. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

The job of management in all businesses outside of government is to identify and address problems that are not customer friendly. IRS management failed. We will probably find out the “best and brightest” were not assigned to process these applications and someone in the chain understood the political ramifications of this and condoned it by not addressing the problem and that is the cancer that must be removed and prosecuted.

The worst thing about government is this simple fact - if I took 2 years to submit my taxes I could be jailed. If they took 2 years to process my taxes they can excuse it with bureaucracy. This is the real danger of big government and this case should illustrate to Americans capable of simple analysis why Obamacare will be such a disaster.

They should depose the employees and grill the managers because that is who is responsible. Having GS-15’s and SES career civil servants blaming GS-5’s and GS-7’s is ridiculous. The little people are drones and they are not in a position to understand the big picture management does.

The IRS scandal illustrates the power of a bureaucracy and the danger of putting partisans in charge. The days of career civil servants who act in a non-partisan manner are fading. Dangerous. Very dangerous.


37 posted on 05/19/2013 8:24:52 AM PDT by volunbeer (We must embrace austerity or austerity will embrace us)
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To: volunbeer
Someone had to come up with those questions in written form. I want to know the fascist that wanted to know the content of one organizations prayers.
38 posted on 05/19/2013 8:29:25 AM PDT by mware
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To: Pharmboy
This whole article is just chock full of garbage. Spin, spin, spin

"By January 2012, employees in Cincinnati, apparently without consulting senior officials, chose new keywords, including “educating on the Constitution” and “social economic reform/movement.” That month, the specialists in Cincinnati and elsewhere began sending out increasingly exhaustive, sometimes intrusive questionnaires."

So they are so overwhelmed with applications that they decide to expand the keyword search from tea-party and patriot to flag even more applications increasing the volume of applications they would ignore into a pile on a "lone" specialists' desk out in the backwater office?

Again, only new keywords that would target the right.

39 posted on 05/19/2013 8:35:20 AM PDT by Smokeyblue
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To: Pharmboy

40 posted on 05/19/2013 8:37:20 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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