A report out at Boston.com claims other groups were also targeted by operational level agents. Some of those scrutinized for tax-free status abuse in the system came from progressive groups. I’m sure Daryl Issa will be all over this fascist abuse:
The Internal Revenue Service’s screening of groups seeking tax-exempt status was broader and lasted longer than has been previously disclosed, the new head of the agency acknowledged Monday. Terms including ‘‘Israel,’’ ‘’Progressive’’ and ‘‘Occupy’’ were used by agency workers to help pick groups for closer examination, according to an internal IRS document obtained by The Associated Press.
The IRS has been under fire since last month after admitting it targeted tea party and other conservative groups that wanted the tax-exempt designation for tough examinations. While investigators have said that agency screening for those groups had stopped in May 2012, Monday’s revelations made it clear that screening for other kinds of organizations continued until earlier this month, when the agency’s new chief, Danny Werfel, says he discovered it and ordered it halted.
I don’t suppose this will do any good, more than a few people like to pretend they are being ruthlessly suppressed and racist know-nothings in this day and age seem particularly drawn to it. Just as it wouldn’t do any good to note the original Boston Teaparty wasn’t simply about protesting taxes on the colonies, the price of tea was lower than it had historically been in North America on that night. No, they were pissed the British government had bailed out the East India tea company, after their company’s lords and masters had made a series of dumbass, greed driven financial moves, using taxes raised from every subject in the empire.
I’m told this is the same reason some Teaparty groups formed, anger over the bank bailouts. But it hardly matters if that’s true or a well nurtured urban myth at this point. They have been completely engulfed and redirected to harass the poor and the sick by the same kind of overpaid corporate clowns that drove some 30 odd colonists to dump tea into Boston harbor more than 200 years ago.
I just read some comments on this article from conservatives. They aren’t believing this report at all – they think that the timing is too “convenient”.
I think that the IRS was being persecuted simply for doing its’ job. I would like to see them carefully investigating any group that asks for tax-exempt status, no matter what kind of group they claim to be.
It won’t be easy for them to give this up, many simply won’t, it will become embedded in their mythology, just like Vince Foster was killed by Clinton and Al Gore said he invented the Internet.