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IRS Commissioner: ‘Progressive’ Groups Were Not Targeted

trfjr

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On Thursday, Danny Werfel, the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service said that no evidence has emerged that liberal groups came under the same kind of extra scrutiny as some conservative groups when the agency assessed their applications for tax-exempt status.

IRS Commissioner: 'Progressive' Groups Were Not Targeted | Washington Free Beacon







So the lefts claim that liberal groups were targeted also defense crumbles. Another narrative crushed. Keep grasping at those straws liberals
 
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"On Thursday, Danny Werfel, the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service said that no evidence has emerged that liberal groups came under the same kind of extra scrutiny as some conservative groups when the agency assessed their applications for tax-exempt status."



In other words, when the review was requested by Issa, the assessment came back that progressive groups did not receive the same scrutiny.

But lets look at the criteria that Issa set down for the assesment:



The Treasury inspector general whose report helped drive the IRS targeting controversy says it limited its examination to conservative groups because of a request from House Republicans.

A spokesman for Russell George, Treasury's inspector general for tax administration, said they were asked - by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) - "to narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations.





So they did not find progressive groups.....since they were told to focus on groups with a bagger moniker!
Those sneaky progressives!
 
"On Thursday, Danny Werfel, the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service said that no evidence has emerged that liberal groups came under the same kind of extra scrutiny as some conservative groups when the agency assessed their applications for tax-exempt status."



In other words, when the review was requested by Issa, the assessment came back that progressive groups did not receive the same scrutiny.

But lets look at the criteria that Issa set down for the assesment:



The Treasury inspector general whose report helped drive the IRS targeting controversy says it limited its examination to conservative groups because of a request from House Republicans.

A spokesman for Russell George, Treasury's inspector general for tax administration, said they were asked - by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) - "to narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations.





So they did not find progressive groups.....since they were told to focus on groups with a bagger moniker!
Those sneaky progressives!

But the IG explained that, while liberal groups were on those lists, agents did not then single them out for additional scrutiny. George said this repeatedly in his letter to Levin, noting Tea Party and other conservative groups were processed as "potential political cases" 100 percent of the time.

Read more: Watchdog knocks down Dem claim that liberal groups were targeted by IRS | Fox News

Keep grasping it is making you look desperate :lamo
 
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Talk about only reading what you want to read. From the FoxNews link above.
Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich. pressed the issue as he questioned newly appointed IRS boss Danny Werfel. Citing the IG letter, he asked whether Werfel's own internal report contradicted the claim.

"No," Werfel said, while adding "more investigation" is needed.

Gee, I wonder why the following is found in the last two paragraphs
Republican lawmakers pressed Werfel over his agency's 30-day report that found no intentional wrongdoing at the IRS over the targeting.

"This report is a sham," Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said, adding that it was too "unsubstantial" to even call a "whitewash."


Let's see if I got this correct; The Republicans in Congress are relying on the Werfel report to charge that only Tea Party and conservative groups were targeted while simultaneously saying ""This report is a sham." So which is it guys? Reliable when it says something you agree with but a sham when you don't agree with it?


A bit ( to say the least ) more complete article comes from CNN, in which one finds the following:
Werfel repeatedly noted that his internal investigation was incomplete and that groups that have waited more than 120 days for an answer to their requests for a tax break included a diverse range of political leanings.

The headline of the CNN piece provides a fine contrast between what some of us think of as journalism and the style found on FoxNews.
Republicans grill acting IRS chief over targeting probe
 
Here's an interesting tidbit from the newsletter Tax Notes. As we all know by now, the IRS applies extra scrutiny to a group applying for tax-exempt status if it suspects the group is political in nature. In 2010, they decided that having "tea party" in a group's name was sufficient to raise a red flag.

The Inspector General's report about this included an audit of 298 groups that had been given special scrutiny. Of these, 96 had "tea party," "patriots," or "9-12 project" in their names. But that's all we know. We have no idea how many of the 298 groups were liberal and how many were conservative, because the IRS doesn't release the name of groups that have applied for tax-exempt status.

However, the IRS does publish the names of groups that have received special scrutiny and been approved for tax-exempt status. They recently released a list of 176 organizations that have been approved since 2010, so Martin Sullivan checked each one to figure out if it was liberal or conservative. Here's what he found:

122 conservative
48 liberal/nonconservative
6 unknown

This doesn't tell us anything definitive about the entire set of groups that got special scrutiny. If the whole set is similar to the approved set, then about two-thirds were conservative and one-third liberal—most likely because of the boom in new tea party groups in 2010. But that's just a guess.

One thing isn't a guess, however: Two-thirds of the groups who were approved for tax-exempt status were conservative. If the IRS was on a partisan witch hunt against conservative groups, that's sure an odd way of showing it, isn't it?

Report Says IRS Approved Tax-Exempt Status For Twice as Many Conservative Groups as Liberal Groups | Mother Jones
 
From George's letter. Keep spinning conservatives! Maybe somebody will believe you.

Based on the information you flagged regarding the existence of a "Progressives"
entry on BOLO lists, TIGTA performed additional research which determined that
six tax-exempt applications filed between May 2010 and May 2012 having the words
"progress" or "progressive" in their names were included in the 298 cases the IRS
identified as potential political cases. We also determined that 14 tax-exempt
applications filed between May 2010 and May 2012 using the words "progress" or
"progressive" in their names were not referred for added scrutiny as potential political
cases. In total, 30 percent of the organizations we identified with the words "progress"
or "progressive" in their names were processed as potential political cases
.
 
Here's an interesting tidbit from the newsletter Tax Notes. As we all know by now, the IRS applies extra scrutiny to a group applying for tax-exempt status if it suspects the group is political in nature. In 2010, they decided that having "tea party" in a group's name was sufficient to raise a red flag.

The Inspector General's report about this included an audit of 298 groups that had been given special scrutiny. Of these, 96 had "tea party," "patriots," or "9-12 project" in their names. But that's all we know. We have no idea how many of the 298 groups were liberal and how many were conservative, because the IRS doesn't release the name of groups that have applied for tax-exempt status.

However, the IRS does publish the names of groups that have received special scrutiny and been approved for tax-exempt status. They recently released a list of 176 organizations that have been approved since 2010, so Martin Sullivan checked each one to figure out if it was liberal or conservative. Here's what he found:

122 conservative
48 liberal/nonconservative
6 unknown

This doesn't tell us anything definitive about the entire set of groups that got special scrutiny. If the whole set is similar to the approved set, then about two-thirds were conservative and one-third liberal—most likely because of the boom in new tea party groups in 2010. But that's just a guess.

One thing isn't a guess, however: Two-thirds of the groups who were approved for tax-exempt status were conservative. If the IRS was on a partisan witch hunt against conservative groups, that's sure an odd way of showing it, isn't it?

Report Says IRS Approved Tax-Exempt Status For Twice as Many Conservative Groups as Liberal Groups | Mother Jones
WASHINGTON -- In February 2010, the Champaign Tea Party in Illinois received approval of its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 90 days, no questions asked.

That was the month before the Internal Revenue Service started singling out Tea Party groups for special treatment. There wouldn't be another Tea Party application approved for 27 months.

In that time, the IRS approved perhaps dozens of applications from similar liberal and progressive groups
, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows.

IRS approved liberal groups while Tea Party in limbo
 
It's all coming out. George was a republican operative. He and Issa had contacts during his bogus investigation.

It's all coming out!

George donated to Republican candidates several times before being appointed inspector general by Bush in 2004. He started his career in Washington as an unpaid intern for Sen. Bob Dole and later worked in the George H.W. Bush White House.

Read more: IRS watchdog J. Russell George finds himself under scrutiny - Kelsey Snell and Lauren French and Rachael Bade - POLITICO.com
 
IRS Commissioner: 'Progressive' Groups Were Not Targeted | Washington Free Beacon







So the lefts claim that liberal groups were targeted also defense crumbles. Another narrative crushed. Keep grasping at those straws liberals


This is a flat out dishonest article and reading of the facts. The Washington Free Beacon is also not a main stream news organization, so this post should be moved.

Camp makes a point that the OIG audit did not limit it's findings to just the Tea Party. This is true. The audit was limited to "Tea Party", "Patriot", "912", and conservative groups only. It's also true that the audit did not find evidence of progressives being targeted. That's because the audit did not look at progressive groups.

It is a FACT that progressives were both investigated and that the BOLOs were balanced politically, unlike what was reported on earlier.

The real scandal here is that GOP operatives selectively released information, and are continuing to selectively release information to give the appearance of scandal where none exists.
 
OMG faux news has figured out it is all a liberal conspiracy by Obama by ignoring the parts which completely contradict their discoveries again. Well, there is a friggen shocker. I guess obama is a secret muslim who was born in kenya, and mitt Romney really was winning all along.

Why are reps still clinging to this BS when they clearly have the NSA and snowden stuff to go with? Come on, there had better be this much of a push to expose spying on US citizens.
 
This is a flat out dishonest article and reading of the facts. The Washington Free Beacon is also not a main stream news organization, so this post should be moved.

Camp makes a point that the OIG audit did not limit it's findings to just the Tea Party. This is true. The audit was limited to "Tea Party", "Patriot", "912", and conservative groups only. It's also true that the audit did not find evidence of progressives being targeted. That's because the audit did not look at progressive groups.

It is a FACT that progressives were both investigated and that the BOLOs were balanced politically, unlike what was reported on earlier.

The real scandal here is that GOP operatives selectively released information, and are continuing to selectively release information to give the appearance of scandal where none exists.


Since George is a Bush appointee, a conservative Republican, and a compadre of Issa's who had contact with him during his "investigation", it's looking more and more like this was a GOP setup from the start.
 
Since George is a Bush appointee, a conservative Republican, and a compadre of Issa's who had contact with him during his "investigation", it's looking more and more like this was a GOP setup from the start.

I'm not big on conspiracy theories, in the sense that I think they're mostly all full of crap.

But.. in this one case, I think that there may have been a bit (not a ton), but a bit, to make this appear to be something it isn't.

It also explains the way the frustration the IRS officials had when they were forced to answer questions they knew to be misleading during testimony.
 
I'm not big on conspiracy theories, in the sense that I think they're mostly all full of crap.

But.. in this one case, I think that there may have been a bit (not a ton), but a bit, to make this appear to be something it isn't.

It also explains the way the frustration the IRS officials had when they were forced to answer questions they knew to be misleading during testimony.
Are you for real? do you actually believe Bush appointed this IG because Bush knew the IRS was going to target Tea Party groups which i will add didn't even exist at that time. so the IG then can give an incomplete and inaccurate report

Is this the lefts argument now that Bush had a crystal ball and was able to look into the future. the desperation from the left is getting ridiculous
 
Talk about only reading what you want to read. From the FoxNews link above.



Gee, I wonder why the following is found in the last two paragraphs



Let's see if I got this correct; The Republicans in Congress are relying on the Werfel report to charge that only Tea Party and conservative groups were targeted while simultaneously saying ""This report is a sham." So which is it guys? Reliable when it says something you agree with but a sham when you don't agree with it?


A bit ( to say the least ) more complete article comes from CNN, in which one finds the following:


The headline of the CNN piece provides a fine contrast between what some of us think of as journalism and the style found on FoxNews.
Republicans grill acting IRS chief over targeting probe

Attacking the source ? You Lose.

Honestly, why can't you just admit your people illegally harrased Americans based on their ideology via the IRS.

You folks got busted, it shouldn't be surprising.

And this isn't over, much more to come.
 
OMG faux news has figured out it is all a liberal conspiracy by Obama by
ignoring the parts which completely contradict their discoveries again. Well, there is a friggen shocker. I guess obama is a secret muslim who was born in kenya, and mitt Romney really was winning all along.

Why are reps still clinging to this BS when they clearly have the NSA and snowden stuff to go with? Come on, there had better be this much of a push to expose spying on US citizens.

Because there's plenty of room for all of Obama's scandals.

The IRS targeting innocent Americans on this scale is unprecedented.

They're not going to get away with it.
 
You have abandoned an argument that no progressives were under
scrutiny.......to whining about the time it took for baggers to get their status.

This is the same distraction and whining I heard all day yesterday.

Wait, so your'e saying Tea Party, Pro-Israel, Pro-Marriage groups weren't "harrased" they were simply put off ?

And that includes having their donor list leaked.

That this is all a big red Herring and since they JUST recieved their status we should forget about it all ?
 
Are you for real? do you actually believe Bush appointed this IG because Bush knew the IRS was going to target Tea Party groups which i will add didn't even exist at that time. so the IG then can give an incomplete and inaccurate report

Is this the lefts argument now that Bush had a crystal ball and was able to look into the future. the desperation from the left is getting ridiculous

Yes I'm for real. The OIG did the job that the OIG is supposed to do. They looked into a very particular question, were CONSERVATIVE groups investigated. The answer was obviously yes. However, during the course of the investigation they came across obvious evidence that it was non partisan, but this evidence was not made public for almost two months.

Take the BOLO lists. Instead of the entire lists being made available, words on the BOLO which targeted conservatives were made public, but words which target liberal groups were omitted; giving the appearance of bias where none existed. Why? Listen to what some people were asking for at the time.

how were they singeled out? Did they use a liberal buzz word like "Progresive" as a flag to do so. Did they use any liberal words to do so?
then if you want to prove your theory correct why wasn't their any liberal groups singled out using the same method? wouldn't you think groups with Progressive or Progression in their name would indicate a possible political activity? in the time frame their was only 3 Tea party groups who received their staus when 65 groups with Progress in their name got thiers.

An intellectually honest person would say that the information we were presented earlier was wrong, and there isn't a scandal. I demanded information, and it turns out that my demands have now been met. But not you. Then again, you've made your intentions quite clear.

drip drip drip
And up the ladder it goes
Remember it took a year into the Watergate scandal before Nixon was forced out of office
I want this to be long, slow, and painful for this administration
 
I'm not big on conspiracy theories, in the sense that I think they're mostly all full of crap.

But.. in this one case, I think that there may have been a bit (not a ton), but a bit, to make this appear to be something it isn't.

It also explains the way the frustration the IRS officials had when they were forced to answer questions they knew to be misleading during testimony.
I agree that conspiracy theories are invariably nonsense. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy really. I'm only extrapolating from the facts we know: That George is a conservative Republican appointed by Bush, that Issa contact him during his investigation (something a Congressmen should never do), and that the report was obviously flawed and didn't disclose the targeting of progressive groups, which now George is trying to explain none too convincingly. At the same time, Issa refuses to make public transcript of various IRS staffer who apparently have said something that Issa doesn't want the public to know (like maybe George and he colluded to cover up the facts).

This isn't a conspiracy; it's a good old Nixon dirty trick.
 
Because there's plenty of room for all of Obama's scandals.

The IRS targeting innocent Americans on this scale is unprecedented.

They're not going to get away with it.

Don't dig too deep on this, you might find the rubber approval stamp that was used by the guy who wanted all the tea party apps to come to him.
 
Yes I'm for real. The OIG did the job that the OIG is supposed to do. They looked into a very particular question, were CONSERVATIVE groups investigated. The answer was obviously yes. However, during the course of the investigation they came across obvious evidence that it was non partisan, but this evidence was not made public for almost two months.

Take the BOLO lists. Instead of the entire lists being made available, words on the BOLO which targeted conservatives were made public, but words which target liberal groups were omitted; giving the appearance of bias where none existed. Why? Listen to what some people were asking for at the time.




An intellectually honest person would say that the information we were presented earlier was wrong, and there isn't a scandal. I demanded information, and it turns out that my demands have now been met. But not you. Then again, you've made your intentions quite clear.

May 21, 2013: J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, testifies on Capitol Hill. (AP)

The government watchdog that exposed IRS targeting of conservative groups gave a blunt response to Democrats' claims that the agency also targeted liberals: It never happened.

"We found no indication in any of these other materials that 'Progressives' was a term used to refer cases for scrutiny for political campaign intervention," IRS Inspector General J. Russell George wrote in a letter to Democrats.

Democrats have since turned on the IG's office, claiming it is only telling half the story.

But Republicans used the letter, and a House hearing on Thursday, to counter that narrative -- getting the current IRS chief to confirm that, in fact, there's no evidence to date that progressives were targeted.

"So far, the evidence only shows conservatives being systematically targeted by the IRS," Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said.

Camp pressed the issue as he questioned newly appointed IRS boss Danny Werfel. Citing the IG letter, he asked whether Werfel's own internal report contradicted the claim.

"No," Werfel said, while adding "more investigation" is needed.


Watchdog knocks down Dem claim that liberal groups were targeted by IRS | Fox News

watch the vid since it seams reading comprehension is not one of your strong points

 
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"Watchdog"?

BWHAHAHAHHAAHHAH

George is a conservative republican Bush appointee who colluded with Issa on the investigation and now is trying to explain he way out of it. He may face criminal charges if it's found out that he suppressed the facts in his report. This is so rich.

BWHAHAHAHHAAHHAH

Why hasn't Obama fired him if he's lying to congress?
 
"Watchdog"?

BWHAHAHAHHAAHHAH

George is a conservative republican Bush appointee who colluded with Issa on the investigation and now is trying to explain he way out of it. He may face criminal charges if it's found out that he suppressed the facts in his report. This is so rich.


then lets take it directly from the horses mouth
watch the dam Vid i know reading doesn't come easy to a progressive

 
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