Saturday, October 07, 2017

Exhaustive new report finds that, despite what the conservatives would have you believe, the IRS targeted both liberal and right wing groups seeking a tax exempt status.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

A federal watchdog investigating whether the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeted conservative political groups seeking tax-exempt status said that the agency also scrutinized organizations associated with liberal causes from 2004 to 2013. 

The findings by the Treasury Department’s inspector general mark the end of a political firestorm that embroiled the I.R.S. in controversy, led to the ouster of its commissioner and prompted accusations the tax collection agency was being used as a political weapon by the Obama administration. 

The exhaustive report, which examined nine years worth of applications for tax-exempt status, comes after a similar audit in 2013 found that groups with conservative names like “Tea Party,” “patriot” or “9/12” were unfairly targeted for further review. 

The new report found that the I.R.S. was also inappropriately targeting progressive-leaning groups. While the investigation does not specify the political affiliations of the groups, names that were flagged included the words “Progressive,” “Occupy,” “Green Energy,” and Acorn — the acronym for the now defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. 

A spokeswoman for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration noted that the report makes no characterization of the political leanings of any of the groups.

To be honest, while I appreciate that this report has come out, we ALREADY knew all of this years ago.

Almost from the second that the conservatives were pissing themselves with outrage that the IRS was "targeting" them, many news sites were publishing information which completely refuted their faux outrage.

And the fact is that the Right Wing media undoubtedly knew that it was all bullshit, but they also knew their audience was made up of drooling slack jawed morons who were never going to look for alternative information sources and would prove easy to manipulate into a frenzy.

What's more is that this report will not change a single mind because the idea that the government was out to quash the conservative movement fees into their confirmation bias, and nothing will rattle that cage.

14 comments:

  1. LisaB25954:34 AM

    Actually, no. This isn't inappropriate targeting. You don't get to be a 504c4 if your main purpose is electioneering. That's a 527.

    No one likes the IRS, but they do have laws to follow and when you're inundated with applications from political movements trying to be social charities, you've got to have some protocol to find them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:14 AM

      not sure what a 504c4 is. DO you mean a 501c4? The later are social welfare groups, which any lobbying group is not. That aside, it makes perfect sense that a group with something political in its name is likely a higher candidate for misfiling under these RIS rules, particularly when most small groups filings are done by the amateur, first time board. The Teach Kids to Fish group, or Gardening for Goodwin
      City is much less likely to be political. So you have to narrow the search and that's all the IRS did.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:47 AM

    Republicans are like Christians, always claiming persecution when they are the ones doing the persecuting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:54 AM

    It must have Been empowering for white supremacists and racists to have Brannon in the White House. I could bet that the vast majority of voters did not know who Bannon was or what he and Breitbart stood for. I learned about them on this blog then followed up elsewhere.

    I want to acknowelege that in spite of Trump's travel ban the largest massacre just happened by white male American citizen. The promised wealth is not coming via tax cuts yet Trump continues to lie. The promised better and cheaper health care promised by the self professed "I make the best deals" Trump is not coming either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:20 AM

      Le$$ MonEy>
      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/us-job-losses-economy-september-bureau-labor-statistics-report-cause-l-a7986641.html

      "US economy loses jobs for first time in seven years
      Non-farm payrolls declined by 33,000 in the month, against expectations of 90,000 new jobs"

      Delete
  4. Anonymous5:06 AM

    Why are you using the inflammatory word ;target: in your headline? I thought that it was the IRS JOB to examine such applications.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's the language the conservatives used to claim that they were unfairly singled out and rejected for tax exemptions.

      I merely appropriated their verbiage.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous5:34 AM

    They should do more targeting of churches who engage in religious activities. In fact,no matter if they do or not,why should churches get to pay no taxes? They should be treated like all businesses,after doing their taxes and deducting for charity related expenses,etc,small churches would likely pay no taxes,and large,for profit churches with leaders flying in private jets and using golden toilets would be paying taxes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:23 AM

      'using golden toilets' and taking Golden Showers would be paying taxes.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous6:10 AM

    Republicans have been spinning facts for many years now, it just did not work until the real slime at the bottom of the swamp got involved. "The Deplorables" and it cost lots of money to invent crimes, commit crimes and hired a cast of lousy actors and hateful nasty humans to pull this insane asscllown show off on the world. Talk about "F" ing morons!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous6:20 AM

    Calm before a tsunami of dossier files flooding the world and creating a storm of confessions. The cleansing of the nasty dirty farting liars of society.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous6:44 AM

    This is where "We The People" have lost. We the People means us and that means the IRS is us and We The People collect taxes from ALL people occupying air space on this soil. It pays for social programs, roads, public schools, public jobs. We elect people to speak for us and spend our tax dollars. Many have became corrupt. We have rules, laws and regulations for a fair society. And today We have been robbed, raped, bamboozled, lied to, cheated and dangerously harmed due directly to the RNC, GOP, Citizen United, NRA, breitbart and more. Never trust a republican today.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous7:16 AM

    "conservative movement fEEs"<Perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous7:50 AM

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/10/06/trump-president-clue-senate.html

    "During an interview with Mike Fuckabee, Trump complained that the legislative filibuster is a death sentence for Republicans, as he demonstrated that he has NO IDEA how the 60 vote rule works."

    ReplyDelete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.