Ted Cruz: I’ve collected 76 different examples of lawless action by the White House

One of the issues that led to impeachment investigations on Nixon was his considering to use the IRS as a weapon against political opponents. Team Obama managed to implement it on a grander scale than Tricky Dick could have dreamed of. So what do we learn now?

House Republicans find 10% of tea party donors audited by IRS

Despite assurances to the contrary, the IRS didn’t destroy all of the donor lists scooped up in its tea party targeting — and a check of those lists reveals that the tax agency audited 10 percent of those donors, much higher than the audit rate for average Americans, House Republicans revealed Wednesday.

Most of us rightly thought it highly suspicious that in a first ever move of inappropriateness, the IRS made demands of the conservative groups donor lists. So what did the IRS do with those lists ( aside from hand copies to Team Obama operatives)?

“The committee uncovered new information indicating that after groups provided the information to the IRS, nearly one in 10 donors were subject to audit,” Rep. Charles W. Boustany Jr., Louisiana Republican and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee’s oversight panel, told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen at a hearing Wednesday…(snip)

…Still, Obama administration officials deny that the targeting was politically motivated, blaming confusion and a flood of applications from conservative groups after a 2010 Supreme Court ruling opened the door to broader political activity from outside interest groups.

Republicans said 24 conservative groups were asked for their donor lists. The IRS initially told Congress that those lists were destroyed, but when they went through their files they discovered three lists that weren’t destroyed.

Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked the IRS to review the names on those lists to see whether any had been audited. The IRS reported back that 10 percent were audited — substantially higher than the average rate of 1 percent of average Americans who are audited each year.

Let us not forget that the very same “coincidence” happened to the female accusers and their legal representatives with Slippery Bill Clinton’s many Bimbo Eruption scandals, whom were also chosen for full IRS audits. Can Democrats every be trusted with the executive management of such corruptible Federal agencies wielding such power?

The IRS has destroyed the public faith and promise of it being an incorruptible politically neutral organization. The only honorable thing to do would be for all involved who refuse to testify with (VERY limited immunity) to be summarily fired with no benefits, the confiscation of their unjustifiable “bonuses,” with further investigations as to whether additional criminal charges need be filed. Since that wont likely happen, and we will likely never know how far the corruption has spread, the only other option is dismantle the IRS and replace the tax system with one that does not require such an agency to exist. In short, Federal employees who betray the public trust must and should be treated no better than Dishonorably Discharged military members and forbidden from ever holding any government office of public trust at any level above garbage collector.

@George Wells:

Perhaps a better gauge of IRS mischief would have been to compare audit statistics of ALL Americans who were in the same tax brackets as the donors with the audit statistics specific to the donors.

How would you know what tax bracket the audited donors where? You don’t of course, so you assume that they are wealthy fat cats. The IRS generally targets 2% of those who make over $100,000 a year, not 10%, the rest who are audited make below $100,000 a year.

There is no reason to audit ANY of the people who are exempt from paying taxes.

That’s your opinion which bears no relation to reality. Average Americans get audited every day. While some audits are chosen at random, most audits are a result of individuals setting off certain flags in their tax filings. such flags include: Incomplete or sloppy returns , Unreported income, Suspiciously low income, Drastic changes in income, Round numbers, High itemized deductions, Disagreements between state and Federal returns, Too many charitable contributions (Note that the IRS took the charitable contributions off the standard forms, whereby only those who itemize their may claim charitable donations). Most of the very wealthy use accountants who know how to avoid setting off trigger flags.

I suspect that if the IRS wasn’t so intentionally underfunded, they would audit a whole lot more than 10% of the rich, whether they donate or not.

It’s 2% not 10 %. It also seems to have escaped your notice that the ACA greatly expanded the number of IRS agents and the organization’s funding. You can count on many more audits, as the newest flag to trigger an audit will be the healthcare flag. Since the very wealthy don’t need healthcare insurance, this flag will affect middle and lower earners.

@ilovebeeswarzone:

DOES IRS AUDIT THE GOVERNMENT?

No Bees, that would be the GAO – Government Accountability Office

The IRS does not generally release press reports on whom they are auditing, but I would doubt seriously that they would audit the President, the Senate Leader or Speaker of the House unless another investigation warranted it.