Republican Darrell Issa requested IRS scrutiny of liberal groups not be released

http://freakoutnation.com/2013/06/27/darrell-issa-requested-irs-scrutiny-of-liberal-groups-not-be-released-to-focus-on-tea-party-organizations/

June 27, 2013

The reason information was not previously released which revealed that liberal groups were scrutinized by the Internal Revenue Service, was because Darrell Issa requested as such. Additionally, Issa had requested investigators “narrowly focus on tea party organizations,” a spokesman for Russell George, Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration.

Documents this week were obtained showing that “progressive,” “Israel” and “occupy” appeared on versions of “be-on-the-lookout” lists (also called BOLO) used by employees in the Internal Revenue Service office that reviewed tax-exempt applications in an effort to coordinate similar issues. Included on the BOLO list was “anti-Republican” which rather negates Issa’s allegations, which said the IRS scrutiny linked in some way to the White House.

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http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/jay-bookman/2013/jun/27/you-want-know-truth-about-irs-scandal/

By Jay Bookman
June 27, 2013

You want to know the truth about the IRS scandal?

This, from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, is the truth about the IRS scandal:

"To be sure, the IRS made mistakes in how it screened conservative groups. And this week it admitted that liberal groups, too, were on a special “be on the lookout” list and called out for greater attention.

However, (the IRS) has never taken sufficient action against the very largest conservative or progressive organizations that clearly have been abusing their tax status by engaging in substantial partisan political activities.

For years it has also permitted foundations run by politicians for their own political interests to gain tax-exempt status. And the agency has repeatedly refused to revoke the tax-exempt status of churches that have crossed the political line....

The first improvement would be to give the agency more money to hire more people to enforce the law.

The agency has far too few employees both to review the rapidly growing applications for tax-exempt status and to make certain that nonprofits comply with the rules and regulations through audits and other enforcement measures. In short, IRS staff members are overwhelmed by the work they are called on to do....

The hypocrisy of a Congress that complains about the inadequacies of the IRS yet is unwilling to grant the agency the money it needs to do its job is all too apparent.

The second challenge is the ambiguity of IRS regulations, and that’s something Congress can urge the agency to fix.

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