… without regard to ideology?
Tea Party chapters around the nation are blasting the Internal Revenue Service after the federal agency sent them letters demanding information about their politics, contributors and even family members.
In letters sent from IRS offices in Cincinnati earlier this month, chapters including the Waco (Texas) Tea Party and the Ohio Liberty Council were asked to provide a list of donors, identify volunteers, financial support for and relationships with political candidates and parties, and even printed copies of their Facebook pages. […]
“When determining whether an organization is eligible for tax-exempt status, including 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, all the facts and circumstances of that specific organization must be considered to determine whether it is eligible for tax-exempt status. To be tax-exempt as a social welfare organization, they must be primarily engaged in the promotion of social welfare,” said a spokesman for the IRS.
“Career civil servants make all decisions on exemption applications in a fair, impartial manner and do so without regard to political party affiliation or ideology.”
Well, now … nevermind …
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.
Organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.
In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.
“That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review,” Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.
“The IRS would like to apologize for that,” she added.
But of course, this was just rogue stuff
Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice. She did not say when they found out.
Yeah, sure, uh huh. And Benghazi was about some Islam-insulting video.
If you toe the party line, you have nothing to worry about, comrade.
Otherwise? You will wish you had never been born.
Hey, remember just last week Obama warning students not to listen to the voices warning of government tyranny?
That could never happen here, wingnut! Now back away from those guns.
I was about to post on this. H/t to Tom W.
– The IRS, as endlessly documented beyond question, is the answer to the quandary any Republic faces in the final government/citizen dispute that cannot be avoided. Nobody is going to willingly contribute to the tax coffers to the extent the ruling class determines is necessary to fund this insanity, so one group, the IRS, has been designated as the “law”, answerable to no one.
no high level IRS officials knew about the practice.
Is the ability to state a bald-faced lie with a straight face now a government job requirement?
The “low-level” ATF guys “responsible” for Fast & Furious transferred to the IRS?
no high level IRS officials knew about the practice.
Huh. Wieird. Abu Ghraib. Even Bush was responsible for that.
The buck stops
hereway down the chain of command.We need to find the low-level schmuck who gave the “stand-down” order for Benghazi.
– “A Republic if you can keep it”….
– At this point, barring some major intervention, all indications are we failed.
We need to find the low-level schmuck who gave the “stand-down” order for Benghazi.
– From what we know so far, it looks like the Politburo was careful to make sure all players to the highest level were thoroughly implicated. CYA run amok.
It always has been…
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