Last week, every fear Americans have about the dangerous power of their over-sized federal government were realized when the Internal Revenue Service admitted to targeting conservative groups filing for non-profit status for special review. New information is slowly trickling out about the key words that the IRS used to trigger these reviews, but this we know for sure: these acts appear to represent a disturbing abuse of power and the inappropriate politicization of the IRS.
Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)
In yesterday’s press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, President Obama said he was ‘concerned’ over the ‘outrageous’ IRS news and that he didn’t want the IRS to be perceived as biased. The President claimed he has no patience with what happened and that he wants to know exactly what occurred. With that in mind, we demand President Obama cooperate fully with any and all investigations into the matter, including requests from Congress for more information. After witnessing the failure of the State Department’s internal investigation into the Benghazi terrorist attacks, the President should be fully supportive of all investigations looking at these charges, including, but not limited to, the Inspector General at the IRS.
It was just last Friday that we learned the shocking news that the IRS has been targeting conservative groups for years. This politicization of the IRS cannot be tolerated by the American people. To single out groups because they offer a different point of view from the Obama Administration’s harkens back to the dark days of the Nixon Administration. The Obama Administration’s obsession with winning – at any cost – has spread Chicago-style politics throughout the federal government and we see it in this admission by the IRS. You might say that Saul Alinsky would approve.
It appears to have started around the time President Obama criticized the United States Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. FEC during his 2010 State of the Union Address. With that unprecedented attack on the High Court, he set the tone for the rest of the federal government. The Washington Post has reported the IRS singled out groups for extra attention since the Citizens United vs. FEC decision:
“The appendix of the inspector general’s report – which was requested by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has yet to be publicly released – chronicles the extent to which the IRS’ exempt organizations division kept redefining what sort of ‘social welfare’ groups it should single out for extra attention since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared to pour gas on the fire when she called for Citizens United to be overturned as she condemned the new IRS scandal in a press release.
These questionable actions by the IRS raise legitimate concerns about the culture of the federal government ahead of the full implementation of Obamacare, which gives the IRS information about individuals’ medical conditions and other private health information. As this scandal continues to expand, it is incumbent upon Congress to conduct a full and complete bipartisan investigation into those who may have targeted their fellow Americans purely for political purposes and hold them accountable. This is the same government that will soon be involved with your personal healthcare decisions, so every American should pay close attention as this gross government overreach develops.
