Six times the IRS has been accused of punishing President Obama’s political opponents
The Washington Free Beacon
5/11/2013
“President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS,”
—President Obama jokes during his commencement speech at Arizona State University in 2009.
Under President Obama the Internal Revenue Service has repeatedly been accused of using its enforcement powers to punish the White House’s political opponents. Here are six of the most egregious examples.
…5. After Being Singled Out by an Obama Campaign Website, a Romney Supporter Was Investigated by The IRS and the Department of Labor
During President Obama’s reelection campaign, Frank VanderSloot, a contributor to pro-Romney campaign organizations, was said by the Obama campaign to have a “less-than-reputable record” and to be a “bitter foe of the gay rights movement.”
A few months later, VanderSloot and his wife were told by the IRS they were being audited for the first time, looking over two years of past fillings.
Two weeks later, the Department of Labor informed VanderSloot that he was being investigated to ensure the three foreign workers he employs on his ranch received “the full scope of protections.”…
…Bonus: Under Obamacare, the IRS Will Become the Key Enforcer on Health Care
Once Obamacare is fully implemented in 2014, the IRS will enforce 47 new tax provisions along with distributing subsidies to 18 million people and tax credits to small businesses.
The Treasury Department expects the cost of enforcement from 2010 to 2013 to total $881 million. Former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman informed Congress last year the agency would need an additional $13.1 billion in 2014.
Read the entire article at The Washington Free Beacon.
Related: Why Obama Released Embarrassing IRS Bombshell If you guessed “Benghazi diversion” you may be a winner!
…The ACLJ [American Center for Law and Justice] has been representing nearly 30 tea party organizations that had been the target of intimidation tactics by the IRS under the Obama administration.
The federal government demanded information that was outside the scope of legitimate inquiry and violated the First Amendment, the ACLJ explained.
The Obama IRS demanded that groups reveal the internal workings of their organizations, he said,”including the identification of members, how they are selected, who they associate with, and even what they discuss.”
The agency also demanded the names and contact information of relatives…
…Bachmann told WND it’s stunning that the Obama administration used “the federal agency feared most by Americans to intimidate conservative and tea party organizations during an election year.”
Since the IRS also is the chief enforcer of Obamacare requirements, she asked whether the IRS’s admission means it “will deny or delay access to health care” for conservatives.
At this point, she said, that “is a reasonable question to ask.”…
…“The Obama administration wants us to believe low-level functionaries are the ones responsible for making this decision,” she said. “That is impossible, laughable. I can tell you within the IRS, the agency is very sensitive of jurisdictional authority…”
Jim Treacher: “Hey, remember when that IRS employee illegally accessed Joe the Plumber’s tax records to smear him for embarrassing Obama? Fun times.”
Fox Business’s Stuart Varney posted this video by Eric Bolling, Problem is IRS Has So Much Power.
Update: MA Rep. Michael Capuano invokes Nixon in remarks on IRS controversy
The congressman admitted he was “troubled by reports that the Internal Revenue Service had aggressively pursued conservative organizations…”
IRS scrutiny went beyond Tea Party, targeting of conservative groups broader than thought
…The internal IG timeline shows a unit in the agency was looking at Tea Party and “patriot” groups dating back to early 2010. But it shows that list of criteria drastically expanding by the time a June 2011 briefing was held. It then included groups focused on government spending, government debt, taxes, and education on ways to “make America a better place to live.” It even flagged groups whose file included criticism of “how the country is being run.”
By early 2012, the criteria were updated to include organizations involved in “limiting/expanding government,” education on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and social economic reform…
In other words, exercising our rights and responsibilities as citizens justified this abuse of power.
Obama dismisses reporter question on IRS with the wave of his hand
…“Good news, America: The IRS has just I believe doubled their staff because the IRS is the one in charge of all of your medical records and all of your medical stuff. They are the enforcement arm coming in 2014. Congratulations. Now the tax man is going to be there helping make medical decisions. But I’m sure nothing would go out because we can trust the government. Remember the president says those who tell you not to about tyranny, tyranny is a thing of the past.Tyranny doesn’t happen.” [CAJ note: related article here]
“Well, what is tyranny? Is tyranny using the IRS as a weapon? Is tyranny making sure that you’re harassed by the government if you happen to disagree with the government? That certainly seems like tyranny, Mr. President.”…
‘This is tyranny’: MSNBC hosts lambaste admin, IRS over ‘unspeakable’ targeting of conservatives
“If this is the government, a nonpartisan agency coming after specific groups, this time it’s real.”
More Beck video: “Submit!” Beck’s passional break down of the “inquisition” of conservative groups–and what’s coming next in the case
Update 3: McConnell: IRS Revelations ‘Just the Beginning’
…The scandal, McConnell said, extends up the chain. “The Obama effort to shut up opponents isn’t limited to the IRS,” he stated. “It applies to the FCC [Federal Communications Commission], SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission], FEC [Federal Elections Commission], HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] …. And you remember, the Obama campaign last year published a list of eight businessmen who it believed were enemies.”…
…He also added that the recent IRS revelations were “just the beginning of the story. This is no little thing. This is a big thing. The good news about it is they finally got caught. They finally messed with an agency everybody fully understands. When they try to quiet the critics through other agencies, it doesn’t get attention. This does. Everybody understands the IRS and how powerful they are. This is just one example of an administration-wide effort to silence critics.”
