IRS Admits They Targeted Conservative Groups!

The IRS has now admitted that they harassed conservative groups in the run up to the 2012 elections as they released this statement, “The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status…Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews…Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.”

This is what you get when you combine the Chicago-style politics of intimidation and thuggery with a community organizer sense that the ends justify the means. However, no one should be surprised after watching this White House for the past five years. As we are now finding out about Benghazi, this administration is not above doing what it takes to win whether it is on policy or elections. Author Kevin Williamson noted, “Using the IRS to target political opponents is banana-republic stuff, a clear and intolerable violation of the public trust, not to mention relevant criminal statutes. This is not the sort of offense that should get these IRS workers fired from their jobs — it is the sort of offense that should get them five years in prison.”

If this doesn’t get folks riled up, nothing will. To have the IRS being used as a tool to hassle political opponents only adds to the reduction of credibility in government, and with the IRS having a major hand in enforcing the 2700-page monstrosity called Obamacare, the question is can the IRS administer this fairly?

In the case of conservative groups, some 75 groups were harried by the IRS, and any group that had the name Tea Party or Patriot got a second, third and fourth look. As Williamson noted, this is not just a firing offense, but someone may need to receive some time, just to send a message that it is not okay to use the IRS to go after political opponents.

It also speaks to the behavior and attitude of this Administration since I doubt the IRS would have on its own decided to target conservative groups unless they were encouraged by those within the Administration. Obama once joked about auditing his political opponents, but then maybe Obama was not really joking.