Huh? What is the IRS-Tea Party Apology?
It's the latest thing the wingers are crowing about. Of course they are saying Obama's Electioneering fingerprints are all over it.
I.R.S. Apologizes to Conservative Groups Over Application Audits
by Jonathan Weisman, nytimes.com -- May 10, 2013
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service apologized to Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations on Friday for what it now says were overzealous audits of their applications for tax-exempt status.
Lois Lerner, the director of the I.R.S. division that oversees tax-exempt groups, acknowledged that the agency had singled out nonprofit applicants with the terms “Tea Party” or “patriots” in their titles in an effort to respond to a surge in applications for tax-exempt status between 2010 and 2012.
[...]
Hey IRS, "
Thou shall Not EVER question a so-called '
Tea Party Patriot'."
That label is their "Get out of Paying Taxes -- Free" card, don't you Guvmint Tax Collectors know that?
Ooops! Wrong Card! The Kochs gave them so many of them you know ...
And how do we know that the same Benghazi-plotters weren't behind this IRS Tea Party scrutinizing too? ... Well there's this:
No Dirty Politics In IRS Investigations Of Tea Party
by Rick Ungar, Contributor forbes.com -- May 10, 2013
[...]
Maybe then, it will interest you to know that there are only two officials at the IRS that are political appointments -- the commissioner (who is the boss) and the chief legal counsel. And while you may be thinking that it would be a piece of cake for the White House to place a call to the Commissioner and nudge him into putting a little heat on Tea Party groups so that they would be kept busy defending themselves from government annoyance rather than putting their energies into defeating the President, it would not have been quite so simple a task for the White House to accomplish.
Why?
Because the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service during the period in question was Douglas Shulman, a political appointee of President George W. Bush.
In fact, not only was Commissioner Shulman a Bush appointee, he would certainly have had no motivation to do the political bidding of a Democrat president considering that Mr. Shulman had already announced prior to the election that he would be stepping down from his post in November.
[...]
SO, how to defuse the IRS-Tea Party apology -- in 3 Easy Steps:
1) The IRS Commissioner at the time Shulman, was a Bush Republican.
2) Shulman was planning to leave the post, long before the IRS started asking Tea Party groups some hard questions.
3) Afterall Tea Party groups, if you expect to be able to use anonymous corporate donations -- TAXFREE -- you had better be ready to fill out a few forms proving you deserve the special status.
Fair is fair. We're all under IRS scrutiny -- even if your initials say you are Taxed Enough Already.
Sorry Kochs. Sorry Sarah Scaife Foundation. Sorry Americans for Prosperity. Sorry Claude R. Lambe Foundation (aka Charles G. Koch)
Careful where you dare to tread, IRS ... Big Brother Patriots are watching you.