Free Republic

White House press secretary Jay Carney chastised Texas Gov. Rick Perry for suggesting on the campaign trail that some economic policy decisions the Federal Reserve is considering border on “treasonous.” Speaking at a campaign stop in Iowa on Monday, the Texas governor didn’t name Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, but he said that printing more money--or quantitative easing--amounted to playing politics and he considered such a move as “almost treacherous—or treasonous in my opinion.” Quantitative easing is an effort to lower borrowing costs and keep banks lending.

A federal inspector general is looking into whether the Obama administration used confidential taxpayer information in an effort to attack a political opponent, Koch Industries.The review was revealed Tuesday by Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, two weeks after he and a handful of other top Senate Republicans called for the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax issues to look into the matter, saying either administration officials had illegal access to taxpayer information or were inappropriately speculating in public about the company's tax status.Charles and David Koch, brothers who control the Kansas-based company, are libertarians who have used some...

Abuse Of Power: Is the White House now targeting a dissident company with the tax code? Sure looks that way, given a menacing reference to Koch Industries from an anonymous official to its trusted media allies. The private Wichita, Kan.-based conglomerate, which operates ranches, drills oil, runs pulp and paper mills, and creates specialized textiles for athletes, among other activities, is owned by two brothers, David and Charles, who openly fund free-market causes. And that, apparently, was enough to draw White House attention to their company's tax structure. On Aug. 27, a senior administration official singled out Koch for condemnation...