May 20, 2013
Dear CCO Readers
As you may know, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released a report earlier this week that concluded the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) used inappropriate criteria to review applications of organizations seeking tax-exempt status. While there is still much to learn regarding the exact details of this clear abuse of power, the timeline and facts that have been confirmed are extremely alarming.
This audit sought to answer three questions: whether certain organizations applying for tax-exempt status were inappropriately flagged for further review, whether these flagged organizations’ applications were delayed purposefully, and whether these organizations were asked to provide unnecessary and intrusive information once they were targeted.
Unfortunately, the answers the audit provided to these three questions were unsettling. The TIGTA report concluded:
•the IRS was flagging tax-exemption applications based on organizations policy positions, targeted organizations applications were delayed much longer, and
•these flagged organizations experienced a significantly longer application process nearly twice as long as the average application process, and
•the IRS asked for unnecessary data from these organizations including the names of all donors, a list of issues important to the organization and the organizations position on these issues and details on member’s employment outside of the organization
The findings that organizations containing “Tea Party” or “Patriots” in their name were specifically targeted are truly alarming. This blatant misuse of power characterizes a much larger problem of how far the administration will go to push their agenda and political ideology on the American people. Additionally, the recent reports that high-ranking officials in the IRS knew these practices were taking place and failed to provide this information when asked specifically by Members of Congress on numerous occasions shows a disregard of the fundamental principle of checks and balances.
Both House Committees with jurisdiction over this issue, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Ways and Means Committee have vowed to investigate the details and timeline of this occurrence further. Those involved in breaking the public’s trust and possibly breaking laws should be fired and if appropriate, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Although I am not a member of either of these committees, please be assured I will continue to monitor this issue closely
Please do not hesitate to contact me any time you have an issue of concern before Congress. I encourage you to visit my website at bucshon.house.gov to sign up for my e-newsletter to receive updates from Washington. Also, please take time to fill out my survey at bucshon.house.gov/survey regarding important issues before Congress. It is an honor to serve you and the people of the 8th District of Indiana.
Sincerely,
Larry Bucshon
Member of Congress
One of the high ranking officials being called in today is a Bush appointee, or so I heard. There’s no smoking gun here for this white house. Fire those responsible for this incident, put checks in place to make sure groups are scrutinized equally, and move on.
Have you been smoking crack, or have you jammed your head up your crack?
No, I just saw how badly people hated this President from the start and I’d like to see cold hard facts before jumping to any conclusions. He’s still an angel compared to Bush, and all your hate and bigotry can’t change that.
Typical liberal response. Any criticism of Barry is called hate and bigotry. Face reality, he is a total disaster as President.
Being a liberal in an extreme minority in this state, which seems more like Alabama anymore, I heard all the n words right from the get go. Before the Benghazi thing, before the IRS thing, before etc etc trumped up nonsense. That’s how I know there is more to it. You’re delusional and in denial to think otherwise.
By the way, I’m white as snow, so save it.
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