Posted on 07/24/2015 7:34:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Obama swung by The Daily Show earlier this week and was challenged by outgoing host Jon Stewart over government incompetence on his watch. Pressed on prominent instances of malfeasance and ineptitude that have plagued the federal bureaucracy during his administration — from the VA wait list scandal, to the catastrophic OPM hack, to the IRS targeting affair — Obama breezily dismissed the latter example as a non-scandal, chalking it up to Congress writing “crummy” laws that were merely implemented “poorly and stupidly.” The Washington Times reports:
President Obama defended the IRS Tuesday in an interview with “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, saying the tea party-targeting scandal was actually Congress‘ fault for passing “a crummy law” and that the real problem is the agency doesn’t have enough money…the president said he’s not to blame, using the IRS as an example of how what went wrong wasn’t his fault, and questioning whether tea party groups were ever targeted…The IRS‘ internal auditor concluded that the agency did, in fact, target conservative and tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny, and Mr. Obama’s own Justice Department is still conducting a criminal investigation into the targeting. Mr. Obama, though, disputed that version Tuesday, according to the pool reporter traveling with the president. Mr. Obama said Congress “passed a crummy law” that provided vague guidance to the people who worked at the IRS. And he said that employees implemented the law “poorly and stupidly.” The president went on to say that the “real scandal around the IRS is that they have been so poorly funded that they cannot go after these folks who are deliberately avoiding tax payments.”
The buck, per usual, stops elsewhere. Kudos, incidentally, to Stewart for asking this question. Obama and his party relentlessly agitate for a larger and more expensive federal government, a goal Stewart tends to share. But the comedian at least evinces some qualms and frustration over big government’s myriad failures; he poses questions like this to prominent Democrats from time to time, and often appears unsatisfied with the answers he elicits. In any case, this president and his administration have a long track record of diminishing scandalous episodes as phony controversies, stoked by political opponents. Here, he downplays the core element of the IRS scandal, constructing the bogus excuse that agency employees were more or less handcuffed and victimized by shoddy laws passed by Congress. He’s been repeating this line for some time now, all while insisting that there isn’t a “smidgen of corruption” at the IRS. But as the Wall Street Journal explained last year, Obama’s preferred narrative is wholly unsupported by the facts:
Mr. Obama wants Americans to believe that the targeting resulted from the confusing tax law governing nonprofits, which he says was “difficult” to interpret and resulted in mere “bureaucratic” mistakes. This is also the Administration’s justification for issuing new regulations governing 501(c)(4)s that would effectively silence White House opponents this election year. Published in the Federal Register in November, the new rules cite the “lack of a clear and concise” regulation as reason for the rewrite. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp blew up this fairy tale at Wednesday’s hearing with new IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Mr. Camp unveiled a June 14, 2012 email from Treasury career attorney Ruth Madrigal to key IRS officials in the tax-exempt department, including former director Lois Lerner. The email cites a blog post about the political activity of tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups and reads: “Don’t know who in your organizations [sic] is keeping tabs on c4s, but since we mentioned potentially addressing them (off-plan) in 2013, I’ve got my radar up and this seemed interesting.”
Interesting for sure. The IRS typically puts out a public schedule of coming regulations, and Mr. Camp noted that in this case “off-plan” appears to mean “hidden from the public.” He added that committee interviews with IRS officials have found that the new 2013 rules were in the works as early as 2011, meaning the Administration has “fabricated the rationale” for this new regulation. Mr. Camp added that everything his committee has discovered contradicts the White House argument that the IRS scandal was caused by legal “confusion.” The current rules governing 501(c)(4)s have existed, unchanged, since 1959. Prior to 2010 the IRS processed and approved tax-exempt applications in fewer than three months with no apparent befuddlement. The IRS hyper-scrutiny of conservative groups only began in 2010 amid the Obama Administration’s larger political attack on political donors like the Koch brothers, and emails show that IRS officials were acutely aware of this political environment.
In other words, the targeting scandal was used as a pretext to introduce the administration’s proposed regulations, which were in the works years before the agency’s abusive practices were revealed. And the supposedly “confusing” and “crummy” existing system had been enforced for decades, largely without incident. Only when Democrats began squealing about Citizens United and secret foreign donations (not these ones) did the highly-politicized IRS spring into action to “fix” the “problem.” The fact of the matter is that the Internal Revenue Service explicitly and deliberately targeted and harassed conservative groups over two election cycles. The numbers, provided by the IRS’ Inspector General, are lopsided and clear:
The agency misled Congress about these abuses, top officials told a series of lies about the nature of their activity once the jig was up, and relevant evidence has routinely and mysteriously disappeared. IRS employees exchanged emails detailing their contempt for conservatives, wrongfully leaked private donor lists to left-wing groups, and exploited said donor lists as the basis for audits. None of these factors have anything to do with “crummy laws,” vague guidance, or misguided implementation. This was an ideological project that weaponized a coercive, punitive branch of the federal government against the ruling party’s political opposition, micromanaged from DC. The agency has admitted to and apologized for engaging in the very behavior Obama is trying to pretend never really happened. As for the president’s definition of the “real scandal” in all of this — insufficient IRS funding — consider: (1) The agency’s intensive and intrusive questioning of Tea Party and conservative-leaning groups created more, not less, work for the IRS. Rather than cutting corners to compensate for its underfunded operations, the IRS created additional layers of work for itself as a means of targeting and abusing the “wrong” sorts of groups. (2) How well is the IRS spending the money they already receive through appropriations? (3) When asked to tighten its belt, the IRS intentionally placed core customer service functions in the budget-cutting crosshairs, while protecting cash earmarked for union activities and bonuses. Their priorities deliberately hurt taxpayers and preserved their own financial interests. Why reward them for ongoing egregious conduct? (4) If Congress were to further increase IRS funding, how much of that money would be used to rehire or retain and promote proven tax cheats?
Hey 0bama, how about you face your own ass and give it a big wet kiss.
If odumbo and his ilk didn’t keep spending money they don’t have, the IRS would not NEED the money. What an asinine statement he made.
A A A R R R RG G G H H H H...!!!!
“They needed the money”
~Andrew Dice Clay
They were going to impeach Nixon for the same thing Obama has done with the IRS.
“Hey, Iran, do you need some money to blow up American?
No problem!
How does $100 billion sound?
Hey, Illegal Invader Criminals!
Do you need some welfare money after sneaking over the border? Would you like us to help you steal some jobs from Native Born Americans?
No problem!
The ones that are still working have PLENTY of money for you.
I hope it's enough!”
~Obama Administration
They forgot about this:
“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
~Robt Goodloe Harper
Arrogant jerk. “Stupid” is one of his favorite words to describe the poor saps who are just carrying out his policies.
IRS could sell their AR 15s.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/duncan-fears-irs-firearms
I know it is MSNBC but it was the first one that came up when I googled it.
I’ve heard all of this before, the spoiled brat who grew up in wealthy surroundings in Honolulu who never accepts blame upon himself. What’s really tragic is that there are people who probably believe him in instances like this or if he were to offer up ocean front property in Iowa or Nebraska.
Seems a good time to toss this one out again:
The IRS should be two people working 4 days a year.
Day 1, day after Congress & POTUS pass a budget: allocate bottom-line figure by state according to total representation in Congress, print up one-page billing invoice for each state, mail to each Governor accordingly by overnight courier (courtesy email as well).
Day 2, next day: call each Governor and confirm receipt of bill.
Day 3, 6 months later: retrieve contents of IRS mailbox, cash each state’s payment. If unpaid, appropriate Governors are called, informed of delinquency of payment, and given a fixed deadline of noon next day to remit payment.
Day 4, next day: confirm clearance of prior day’s funds transfers, and cash any late payments. Submit formal statement to POTUS declaring which states have paid their billed liability...and which have not. Both IRS agents receive their payment for 4 days work.
Of subsequent interest...
Day 5, next day: POTUS calls out National Guard, on grounds of “putting down rebellions”, to seize control of delinquent state governments until payment of taxes due is extracted, either by cooperative payment on demand at gunpoint, or liquidation of assets owned by state & state officials (top down), both public & private holdings.
Let the states decide how they will raise their fair share of federal revenue - and give them reason to influence the scale of that revenue.
No, they don't. They need much less. The Government in General needs much less, and what they do get, they need to use to fund defense, and they also need to stop funding liberal bullsh*t social programs.
But Obama is an idiot Man Child, and doesn't know anything worth knowing.
Observation:
Every sane & capable adult is expected to achieve financial independence (”retirement”) at some point within 50 years of coming of age.
We should expect the same of our government(s): after some 50 years of confiscating funds and exercising control & power, they should be entirely capable of funding their own existence without being a further (and growing beyond any sane limits) burden on citizens.
The federal gov’t in particular, as it OWNS the literal money-making machines.
Day 6: When the National Guard is told to seize Texas because they couldn’t pay their $100,000,000,000,000 bill, Civil War breaks out.
BTW, California and New York defaulted on their $1,000 bill, but for some reason Obama did not call out the National Guard on them...
Nixon never actually set the IRS on anyone. In fact, Nixon was the one who got audited. Something that was unheard of for a sitting president.
POS.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/another-taxpayer-financed-irs-video-surfaces/
Abolish the IRS. They waste most of the money they are given persecuting tax payers and on BS boondoggles.
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