Fake scandals/IRS

The Scandal

Supposedly there was some kind of scandal about the IRS, under Obama, targeting Tea Party groups (but not liberal groups) for possible investigation.

Quotes

• "This is truly outrageous. And it contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government. It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review. And I think that it's very disappointing that the president hasn't personally condemned this and spoken out." -- Susan Collins (R-ME), 5/12
• "The Tea Party people have known about this and were working on this. But they said – it was just some odd underlings out in Cincinnati who did this and there was no political motive whatever involved. Now the question is, how stupid do they think we are? Just imagine, Donna Brazile, if the George W. Bush administration had an IRS underling, he’s out in Cincinnati, of course, saying we’re going to target groups with the word 'progressive' in their title. We’d have all hell breaking loose." -- George Will, conservatroll, 5/12
• "The fact is if you're doing something and it's wrong, it's illegal, it's the kind of thing that scares the American people to their core, when Americans are being targeted for audits based on their political beliefs, that needs to change." -- Darrell Issa (R-CA), right-wingnut and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight
• "If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous. And there’s no place for it." -- Barack Obama, 5/14

The "scandal" continued long after it was debunked:

• 2014-11-03, Daily Caller: BOMBSHELL MEMO: Jeanne Shaheen Conspired With White House Insider On IRS Targeting Scandal: "Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was principally involved in a plot with Lois Lerner and President Barack Obama’s political appointee at the IRS to lead a program of harassment against conservative nonprofit groups during the 2012 election"

...and is still being repeated on social media as of 2015:

"What about the IRS scandal? Thats one example of liberals making right wingers lives worse." - FuzzyLittleBastard, comment on Google+, 2015-04-05

The Reality

This is was a fake scandal created and maintained by the Republican Party with the assistance of the media:

• The IRS was specifically requested by House Republicans to investigate conservative groups.
• The IRS investigated some liberal groups anyway.
• The media helped magnify public perception of the "scandal" by selectively reporting only the actions against conservatroll groups.

The supposed scandal was widely reported in the media while the fact that it was untrue was widely ignored, as was the fact that the focus on Tea Party groups had been requested by none other than Republican Darrell Issa.

Links

News

• 2013-01-02 Controversial Dark Money Group Among Five That Told IRS They Would Stay Out of Politics, Then Didn't: the real scandal
• 2013-01-04 Mother Jones: Dark Money Group Promised the IRS it Would Stay Out of Politics, Then Didn't
• 2013-05-11 The Wire: Why the IRS Abruptly Apologized to the Tea Party "The report from the Treasury Department's inspector general shows Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, was informed that groups with "Tea Party," "Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being targeted for extra questioning..." - the scandal emerges, stage Right
• 2013-05-13
  • New Yorker: The Real I.R.S. Scandal "So the scandal – the real scandal – is that 501(c)(4) groups have been engaged in political activity in such a sustained and open way." ... "Some people in the I.R.S. field office in Cincinnati took the names of certain groups—names that included the terms “Tea Party” and “patriot,” among others, which tend to signal conservatism – as signals that they might not be engaged in "social welfare" operations. Rather, the I.R.S. employees thought that these groups might be doing explicit politics – which would disqualify them for 501(c)(4) status, and set them aside for closer examination. This appears to have been a pretty reasonable assumption on the part of the I.R.S. employees: having "Tea Party" in your name is at least a slight clue about partisanship. When the inspector-general report becomes public, we’ll surely learn the identity of these organizations."
  • PoliticusUSA: Marco Rubio Humiliates Himself By Demanding That the Non-Existent IRS Commissioner Resign
  • New York Times: Uneven I.R.S. Scrutiny Seen in Political Spending by Big Tax-Exempt Groups
• 2013-05-14 Uneven I.R.S. Scrutiny Seen in Political Spending by Big Tax-Exempt Groups: the scandal continues to perform
• 2013-06-24
  • Documents show IRS also screened liberal groups "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."
    • Darrell Issa just had a bad day: IRS 'targeted' groups with 'Occupy' and 'Progressive' in names "It looks like they were trying to screen for groups engaged in political activity ... because groups engaged mainly in influencing campaigns are not entitled to non-profit tax exempt status. In other words, they were trying to enforce the law. And it's not exactly an easy law to enforce."
• 2013-06-26 Treasury Inspector General says Audit of IRS actions limited to Tea Party groups at GOP request: they were asked by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA)"to narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations."
• 2013-08-02 The Media's Shameful Role in the Phony IRS Scandal "There had been a huge explosion in coverage in May when the revelations first appeared, nearly all of it making them out to be evidence of a grand Nixonian conspiracy to silence grass-root conservative groups. This explosion in coverage inevitably took its toll on the Obama administration..." but media coverage (especially at Politico) declined dramatically when exculpatory evidence became available.
• 2014-08-26 Here's the Latest Right-Wing IRS Fantasy: the Right still can't let go of the idea that somewhere Lois Lerner must have said something that could be used to whip the dead horse of controversy back to life.
• 2014-09-01 Email Reveals Lois Lerner Ignored Political Expenditures By Unions - the zombie lurches on
• 2014-09-02 IRS: Did Lerner Overlook Millions Of Dollars Of Political Expenditures By Unions In Order To Benefit Democrats?: answer is probably "no", but as long as the public thinks it's "yes"...
• 2014-11-04, PolitiFact: Jeanne Shaheen hit by last-minute attack over Lois Lerner controversy at IRS: rated FALSE
• 2014-11-22 30,000 missing emails from IRS' Lerner recovered: how about that -- administration officials were able to recover data they had previously thought to be unreadable. This is competence at work. I wonder if there will turn out to be anything relevant in them.
  • "The agency first failed to disclose the loss to Congress and then tried to declare Lerner’s e-mails gone and lost forever. Once again it appears the IRS hasn't been straight with Congress and the American people." says Darrell Issa. Why is he assuming dishonesty here? Data recovery is a very tricky business.
• 2014-11-25 Revealed: 2,500 new documents in IRS / W.H. harassment cases ...probably none of which have anything relevant in them
• 2014-12-03
  • White House, IRS Watchdog Refusing To Release Leaked Taxpayer Documents About Obama Administration's Role In IRS Scandal - sourced entirely from the Daily Caller link below and the Washington Examiner on 11/25
  • Obama Administration REFUSES To Release Documents About White House Role in IRS Scandal: actually, they were seized by the lawyer for the inspector general, Gregory M. Miller -- but whatever.
• 2014-12-12 Lois Lerner emails show DOJ and IRS were working together: Gasp.
• 2014-12-23 Inquiry Into I.R.S. Lapses Shows No Links to White House "An 18-month congressional investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s mistreatment of conservative political groups seeking tax exemptions failed to show coordination between agency officials and political operatives in the White House, according to a report released on Tuesday." (Tuesday = 2014-12-23)