The great IRS/Tea party scandle fizzles

[Foxfyre]

So the latest chapter in this is that the new director of the IRS asked for Lois Lerner's resignation and she refused to give it. So she has been 'punished' by being put on administrative leave with full salary and benefits. Wow, I could go for an indefinite vacation with full salary and benefits. How many of us working in the private sector, if we had refused to answer questions from our bosses, would have the same luxury? We'd be out the door on our tush with a firm "And don't come back" ringing in our ears.

And yet the IRS is hiring 2,000 new agents to investigate the healthcare of all of us and determine if we can keep what we have, will have to pay fines, or whatever.

The government is out of control.

Lois Lerner, the director of the tax-exempt organizations division at the Internal Revenue Service, has been placed on administrative leave, sources in Congress and the administration confirm.

Federal workers are given pay and benefits when put on administrative leave.

“My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. “The IRS owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly.”

Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel has selected Ken Corbin as the acting director, of the exempt organizations division. Corbin is currently the deputy director of the submission processing, wage and investment division.
Lois Lerner put on administrative leave by IRS

 

[Dot Com]

the partisan bickering brought Foxfyre out of her fiefdom/forum within a forum. Nothing like a good rw witch hunt to achieve that.

As to the OP, these people should be lauded by the rw for boot strapping (getting the job done given limited resources) their way through work given the repubs cut their budget. Have repubs ever increased the agency's budget?

 

[Foxfyre]

The Republicans cut their budget? Perhaps you could provide some evidence of that Dot Com?

(For your information, I post about tenfold more in the Politics, economics, environment and religion forums than I post anywhere else.)

 

[Foxfyre]

It remains too soon to know how close this particular scandal will get to the President or whether it will have any long range implications, but a recent Rasmussen poll suggests that it is at least a P.R. problem for him for now:

Most voters believe the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups was politically motivated and think most of those involved should be severely punished.

Just 16% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the IRS investigations of these groups were a coincidence, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifty-seven percent (57%) think the investigations were politically motivated. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-five percent (55%) think it is at least somewhat likely that President Obama or his top aides were aware that Tea Party and other conservative groups were targeted by the IRS. Thirty-four percent (34%) consider that unlikely. This includes 36% who believe it is Very Likely the president or his top aides knew of the investigations and 13% who feel it is Not At All Likely. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided.

I had earlier been encouraged that even the Democrats were angry about all this, but alas, the issue seems to remain bitterly partisan. Republicans and other than Democrats mostly want strong action to be taken. Most Democrats want the Annointed One and his administration to get a pass.

Only seven percent (7%) of voters believe no disciplinary action should be taken against the IRS employees involved in the investigations. Twenty-nine percent (29%) feel they should be formally reprimanded. But most (57%) think those involved should be jailed or fired, with 16% who say they should be put in jail and 41% who believe they should be fired.

While 86% of Republicans and 60% of voters not affiliated with either major party think the IRS investigations were politically motivated, just 33% of Democrats agree.

57% Want IRS Offenders Jailed or Fired - Rasmussen Reports?

 

[Freewill]

The scandal will not get to the president. The news outlets will soon fall in line and the story will be dropped. Leaner will fade to obscurity and it will end. Hell Obama can get away with "accidentally" killing an innocent 16 year old boy, do you think anyone on the left is going to have sympathy for conservatives being harassed by the liberal left. If you think so you are dreaming.

 

[Dot Com]

It remains too soon to know how close this particular scandal will get to the President or whether it will have any long range implications, but a recent Rasmussen poll suggests that ...

Rasmussen? You don't say? Stop being coy. Why don't you just come out and say "Roger Ailes/Fox says..." It would have the same effect.

 

[Foxfyre]

Dot, if you would like to contribute something substantial to the discussion, please join in. If your motive here is simply to insult and nitpick and obfusicate and derail and detract, surely it is time for your nap soon?

Freewill, I think that is the concern of a lot of us. The American people have become lazy, fickle, and have very short attention spans these days. They are easily detracted by almost anything, and I'm sure the Administration is scrambling now to identify or create some diversion that will get the attention off this scandal. Or maybe this scandal is being allowed to continue because the Benghazi one would be worse if the media was still focused on that.

But I keep hoping there are enough of us who will put truth and integrity in government ahead of partisanship who will not let this stuff be buried.

 

[Oldstyle]

fizzling is right. No one but teapublicans care about this. The workers were overwhelmed due to the Citizens United ruling and subsequent flood of fake rw *cough* "social education" groups while simultaneously having their budget cut. The did what Republicans, up until this point had no prob with, they profiled. BFD

The workers were not "overwhelmed" due to the Citizen's United ruling, Dottie! That's progressive smoke and mirrors trying desperately to hide what really took place at the IRS. The truth is that the targeting of conservative groups began BEFORE the Citizen's United ruling even took place. Total FAIL on that talking point!

 

[Spoonman]

“I do not believe partisanship motivated the actions”—of the officials in the Cincinnati office. What actually happened, he went on, was “foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection.” Deluged with applications for tax-exempt status, many of which came from conservative groups with ties to politics, the officials took the “short cut” of looking for words like “Tea Party” and “patriots” in the names of groups that submitted applications. But nobody specifically “targeted” conservative groups. “There was no targeting because there was no intent,” Miller said. The applications that the agent put into a queue for further review came from groups from across the political spectrum, he reminded his inquisitors. Only seventy out of about three hundred had “Tea Party” or similar words in their names....nobody has come up with one iota of evidence to contradict Miller’s story. One of the congressmen asked George, the Inspector General of Taxes, if his staff had found any suggestion of political motivations on the part of the I.R.S. employees. “We did not,” George replied.
Roll Up! Roll Up! The I.R.S. Non-Scandal Moves to Capitol Hill : The New Yorker

yea, i guess thats why they just removed the woman in charge. nothing here to see, move along

 

[Dot Com]

(For your information, I post about tenfold more in the Politics, economics, environment and religion forums than I post anywhere else.)

ok. Maybe I pigeon holed you to a degree. Still friends?

 

[lukelk]

Hmmmm, how many of "them" are political groups? ALL, how many should not have to pay taxes? NONE. how many were denied status? NONE thats why there is NO scandle, thats fact. all this is was an attempt to try and paint the IRS is a bad light so that the attack on healthcare could begin again. simple. Not to mention under the Bush admin. "left wing" groups were targeted. NOTHING WAS DONE, reason? its not a scandel. the IRS can target anyone they want. Also the POTUS has ZERO influence on the IRS and the IRS is not affiliated with either party. story over.

 

[Darkwind]

the leftists are desperate to make these go away.

 

[Dot Com]

Hmmmm, how many of "them" are political groups? ALL, how many should not have to pay taxes? NONE. how many were denied status? NONE thats why there is NO scandle, thats fact. all this is was an attempt to try and paint the IRS is a bad light so that the attack on healthcare could begin again. simple. Not to mention under the Bush admin. "left wing" groups were targeted. NOTHING WAS DONE, reason? its not a scandel. the IRS can target anyone they want. Also the POTUS has ZERO influence on the IRS and the IRS is not affiliated with either party. story over.

that about sums it up. An easy target for Republicorp to exploit.

 

[Foxfyre]

fizzling is right. No one but teapublicans care about this. The workers were overwhelmed due to the Citizens United ruling and subsequent flood of fake rw *cough* "social education" groups while simultaneously having their budget cut. The did what Republicans, up until this point had no prob with, they profiled. BFD

The workers were not "overwhelmed" due to the Citizen's United ruling, Dottie! That's progressive smoke and mirrors trying desperately to hide what really took place at the IRS. The truth is that the targeting of conservative groups began BEFORE the Citizen's United ruling even took place. Total FAIL on that talking point!

Actually, I think the Citizens United vs the Federal Election Commission ruling did have a bearing on the current controversy. According to the best information I found, the IRS started ramping up investigation of conservative groups and stalling applications for 501c(4) applications two months after that ruling in January 2010. And while the IRS claims nobody was denied tax exempt status, the 'investigations' delayed awarding the status all the way through the 2010 election cycle and most or all of the 2012 election cycle. It definitely gives every appearance of being deliberate, intentional, and retalitory.

This prevented the groups from effective fund raising and other activities that might have affected public perception during those election cycles. And because it was ONLY conservative groups targeted, effectively muzzling and hamstringing them, it very likely could have affected the outcome of numerous elections in the favor of the Democrat candidates.

And ANYBODY who thnks that is okay needs to have their heads examined and/or find a new country.

 

[Dot Com]

Stop w/ the farce Republicans

GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions | Crooks and Liars

January 12, 2012 07:00 PM
GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions

For any American concerned about the federal budget deficit, job one must be to collect all of the tax revenue owed to the United States Treasury. That's why supposed Republican deficit hawks simply aren't serious about the national debt. After all, a new report confirmed that steep GOP budget cuts at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are hurting customer service, delaying refunds and costing Uncle Sam billions of dollars annually. Thanks to the never-ending Republican war on the IRS dating back to the late 1990's, tax evasion and cheating are now depriving the U.S. of $400 billion each year.

In April, Congressional Republicans extracted $600 million in cuts from the IRS in return for a spending deal with President Obama, reductions which at the time were forecast to cost the Treasury $4 billion in lost revenue. Now, the annual report to Congress from the National Taxpayer Advocate shows, "IRS is not adequately funded to serve taxpayers or collect revenue." As the AP explained:

 

[Katzndogz]

Stop with the farce and start arresting democrats now.

 

[depotoo]

Stop w/ the farce Republicans

GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions | Crooks and Liars

January 12, 2012 07:00 PM
GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions

For any American concerned about the federal budget deficit, job one must be to collect all of the tax revenue owed to the United States Treasury. That's why supposed Republican deficit hawks simply aren't serious about the national debt. After all, a new report confirmed that steep GOP budget cuts at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are hurting customer service, delaying refunds and costing Uncle Sam billions of dollars annually. Thanks to the never-ending Republican war on the IRS dating back to the late 1990's, tax evasion and cheating are now depriving the U.S. of $400 billion each year.

In April, Congressional Republicans extracted $600 million in cuts from the IRS in return for a spending deal with President Obama, reductions which at the time were forecast to cost the Treasury $4 billion in lost revenue. Now, the annual report to Congress from the National Taxpayer Advocate shows, "IRS is not adequately funded to serve taxpayers or collect revenue." As the AP explained:

and yet most of the returns are now automated along with all their supporting documents. We shouldn't expect any cuts, now should we, in costs, right?

 

[depotoo]

and the GAO -
What GAO Found
The results of our work show:

•IRS absorbed the 2.5 percent or $305 million fiscal year 2012 reduction by decreasing FTEs and other costs, primarily in the Enforcement and Operations Support appropriations. Several of our recent reports show that other opportunities exist to increase efficiencies through, for example, automating some services leveraging paid tax return preparers, and conducting more compliance checks before issuing refunds.

•IRS’s fiscal year 2013 budget request represents a $944.5 million (8.0 percent) and about a 4,500 FTEs (5.0 percent) increase over fiscal year 2012.

•Seven of the 12 proposed new program initiatives ($603.1 million) are supported by ROI estimates; the others ($303.9 million) are not supported by ROI information or, for the 2 we reviewed, other similar economic assessments, such as cost effectiveness analyses.•IRS’s PPACA cost estimate partially meets best practices for reliability, but it has not been updated since October 2010.

•IRS budgets for hiring new staff based on the new staff being onboard for the full fiscal year. But, in recent years, IRS hired most new staff late in the fiscal year, which could have resulted in funding being used for other purposes that are not described or substantiated in the budget justification.
•Fourteen of 20 major IT investments were within 10 percent of cost and schedule estimates between October 2011 and March 2012, but we could not determine whether these investments delivered planned functionality because IRS does not have a quantitative measure of scope for major IT investments.•We have conducted analyses related to 6 of the 22 legislative proposals included in the budget request for IRS.

•IRS at least partially implemented 5 of our 9 prior recommendations intended to improve information presented in the budget request; in addition, we have 106 other matters for Congress or recommendations to IRS regarding tax administration that remain open and could result in potential financial benefits, either budget savings or increases in tax revenue.

sounds like they need to work on better work practices rather than continually asking for just more money.

Wow 8% increase in budget requests for one year? Must be nice to feel you deserve that when most companies are going through budget cuts.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-603

 

[Foxfyre]

Stop w/ the farce Republicans

GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions | Crooks and Liars

January 12, 2012 07:00 PM
GOP War on the IRS Costs U.S. Billions

For any American concerned about the federal budget deficit, job one must be to collect all of the tax revenue owed to the United States Treasury. That's why supposed Republican deficit hawks simply aren't serious about the national debt. After all, a new report confirmed that steep GOP budget cuts at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are hurting customer service, delaying refunds and costing Uncle Sam billions of dollars annually. Thanks to the never-ending Republican war on the IRS dating back to the late 1990's, tax evasion and cheating are now depriving the U.S. of $400 billion each year.

In April, Congressional Republicans extracted $600 million in cuts from the IRS in return for a spending deal with President Obama, reductions which at the time were forecast to cost the Treasury $4 billion in lost revenue. Now, the annual report to Congress from the National Taxpayer Advocate shows, "IRS is not adequately funded to serve taxpayers or collect revenue." As the AP explained:

Crooks and Liars needs to do better fact checking.

The Internal Revenue Service avoided a $603 million budget cut proposed by House Republicans, preventing changes that could have cost the government $4 billion in uncollected revenue.

Under the proposed spending bill released today, the IRS budget for fiscal year 2011 would be $12.1 billion, or 0.2 percent less than in fiscal 2010. That level would subject the IRS to the same across-the-board funding cut as all domestic, non-defense agencies.

The legislation would deny the IRS a $486 million budget increase it had sought as it tries to improve enforcement of tax laws aimed at wealthy individuals and multinational corporations. House Republicans touted the denial of the IRS increase when they announced the budget agreement with the administration April 8.

The spending bill, which is expected to become law within the week, isn’t likely to lead to immediate changes at the IRS, said Kevin Brown, a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Washington who was acting IRS commissioner in 2007. . . .

. . . The IRS budget has increased in each of the past 10 years, according to the agency. This year, Brown said, the IRS has more flexibility to absorb a flat budget because it doesn’t have to cover a pay raise for federal employees, who have had their salaries frozen.

In 2010, the IRS had a workforce of 94,711. That’s higher than in any year since 2004, though below the peak employment in 1992 of 116,673

IRS Spared From Budget Cuts as U.S. Agency Seeks Revenue From Tax Cheats - Bloomberg

 

[boedicca]

fizzling is right. No one but teapublicans care about this. The workers were overwhelmed due to the Citizens United ruling and subsequent flood of fake rw *cough* "social education" groups while simultaneously having their budget cut. The did what Republicans, up until this point had no prob with, they profiled. BFD

The workers were not "overwhelmed" due to the Citizen's United ruling, Dottie! That's progressive smoke and mirrors trying desperately to hide what really took place at the IRS. The truth is that the targeting of conservative groups began BEFORE the Citizen's United ruling even took place. Total FAIL on that talking point!

Actually, I think the Citizens United vs the Federal Election Commission ruling did have a bearing on the current controversy. According to the best information I found, the IRS started ramping up investigation of conservative groups and stalling applications for 501c(4) applications two months after that ruling in January 2010. And while the IRS claims nobody was denied tax exempt status, the 'investigations' delayed awarding the status all the way through the 2010 election cycle and most or all of the 2012 election cycle. It definitely gives every appearance of being deliberate, intentional, and retalitory.

This prevented the groups from effective fund raising and other activities that might have affected public perception during those election cycles. And because it was ONLY conservative groups targeted, effectively muzzling and hamstringing them, it very likely could have affected the outcome of numerous elections in the favor of the Democrat candidates.

And ANYBODY who thnks that is okay needs to have their heads examined and/or find a new country.

Obama immediately started attacking the Citizens United decision. From the 2010 State of the Union address:

“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign companies -- to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said tonight. “Well, I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

Obama's State of the Union address: Criticism of the Supreme Court campaign finance ruling - latimes.com


And from there, the Journolist cabal picked up the attacks on the Tea Party and followed Obama's lead in casting aspersions on the motives and financing of conservative groups.

It is not at all surprising that unionized government employees acted on this "threat" to their gravy train and targeted conservatives.