Q&A of the Day – IRS Targeting & The Implication of the “Inflation Reduction Act”
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry: Brian, I have to admit I completely forgot about the IRS targeting until I heard you talking about it. Can you refresh us on what happened then. I think its really important to talk about as Dems are set to double the size of the IRS.
Bottom Line: I get it. Unless you were specifically among those targeted by the IRS under the Obama administration, it’s completely understandable that you’d have forgotten about the IRS being weaponized against conservatives. We’re all busy living our lives and it's been a while. And you’re right. As the House is taking up the inappropriately named “Inflation Reduction Act” today, it is appropriate to have this conversation. Here’s a recap of what happened during the IRS targeting campaign against conservatives during Obama’s administration.
- From 2010 thru 2012 the IRS formally issued a directive to target conservatives
- Between August of 2010 and July of 2011 IRS employees were specifically directed to flag and deny status for “Tea Party” affiliated organizations
- 298 Groups were targeted and illegally denied status during this period
- Additionally, the IRS issued onerous demands and requests on an unquantified number of suspected conservative organizations and individuals
- Audit levels for suspected conservative organizations and those associated with them rose significantly
- After a Congressional Investigation, Lois Lerner, the IRS Exempt Organizations Director, resigned and an inspector general investigation was conducted which discovered the facts outlined
- In 2017, the Justice Department settled a class action lawsuit with 428 claimants who were known victims of the targeting. As part of the settlement the IRS admitted wrongdoing and issued an “apology” along with this official statement: (The IRS) “Was delinquent in its responsibility to provide effective control, guidance, and direction over the processing of applications for tax exempt status filed by Tea Party and other political advocacy organizations.”
Right, so the IRS was delinquent in its responsibility to provide effective control, guidance and direction resulting in the agency being used as a political weapon against conservatives. As we’ve been talking about the reality that the DOJ and FBI, didn’t starting raiding Donald Trump this week – that in fact it began with their illegal and fraudulent activities in creating the Russian collusion hoax in 2016, it’s equally appropriate to have this conversation about the IRS today as Congressional Democrats are set to literally double the size of the IRS. Here’s specifically what the legislation calls for:
- Increases the IRS’ funding by $80 billion
- Over half, $45.6 billion is earmarked for increased enforcement
- The enforcement is in the form of adding approximately 87,000 new agents
The overall net of effect of enforcement would mean somewhere between a four-to-six-fold increase in audits over current levels. Now, while I think all honest taxpayers can agree that the IRS being able to effectively hold tax cheats accountable is appropriate, how much confidence can we have in honest application of the law? Has even recent history taught us that this agency can and has been used to specifically harm conservatives? Has the Biden administration proven that it’s different from the Obama administration in using government agencies from targeting political adversaries? So yes, that’s why it’s appropriate to have this conversation today.
You’d mentioned that you’d forgotten. Consider this. The youngest voters were eight-years old when the IRS targeting scam was first uncovered last decade. What are the odds that they know about this. For that matter they were 12 when the DOJ and FBI were colluding with the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC to peddle a fraudulent dossier through the FISA court to create the Trump-Russia collusion hoax in an attempt to prevent Donald Trump from becoming President of the United States and to attempt to eliminate him once there. These federal agencies and this administration retain no credibility in being honest arbiters of the law. It’s proven fact that they’ve unlawfully pursued political adversaries. This is but one of many reasons why this legislation should not be passed in Congress. It’s about anything other than reducing inflation.