I know he’s not a popular figure in these parts, but in regard to the content of the dressing down given by Paul Ryan to the IRS commissioner, do you agree or disagree? Poll to follow.
The IRS was tasked with making political decisions by the congress – which organizations were getting and spending money to publicize their position on issues, as opposed to supporting a candidate or party in general. Could they have devised ways of screening those groups (hundreds, suddenly) without discussions, emails, telephone conversations? I very much doubt it.
I suspect a lot of discussion went back and forth and that the big boys and girls were never quite sure what to have as a guidline. the desisions devolved to department heads and to group coordinators…who did a reasonably good job.
But, all that detritus remained in the system where individual comments could be taken out of context and out of proportion, leading to misunderstandings. So, erase the blackboard and be able to explain what happened in an overall, reasoned manner, not having to deal with snips and snails and puppy dog tails of emails.
If the law was subject to some degree of interpretation, congress should get feedback and make improvements that will help the IRS do the job they were asked to do (much different than deciding who owes how much…)
Ryan was just mugging for the camera to keep his name fresh in people’s minds before launching his doomeed 2016 presidential bid.
QFT. Any time the C-SPAN camera is on a Congressman’s face, they’re showboating for the benefit of the Fox News crowd.
I’m not sure why Paul Ryan should be yelling at somebody else about a policy Ryan has never made any effort to change.
Given that this isn’t the Pit, would I get warned if I chose the last option in the poll?
ETA: For the record, however, I don’t agree with Paul Ryan continuing to consume calories and metabolize oxygen. :dubious:
I just can’t decide if that Commissioner is just mind-numbingly tone deaf as toy what is yogin on or if he, too, has his marching orders. Susan Rice style.
Exsqueeze me?
A good benchmark of the value of a congressional investigating committee the proportion between the time the witnesses speak and the time the committee members speak. If they actually wanted to investigate anything, they would ask questions and listen to answers. Ryan made a point that he was explicitly not asking a question and chastised the commissioner for attempting to address his allegations. If all he wants to do is give a speech then he should just hold a press conference and quit wasting the witnesses time.
Ryan is getting enormous positive support from this episode! What are you talking about? I do agree with you that he’s putting himself out there for the upcoming Presidential election and he selected exactly the right words to put himself in a very positive light.
I just flag your comment as “Whistling passed the graveyard”. In other words, you are saying what you wish were true.
I agree with the content of what Ryan’s saying (i.e. that the IRS is being uncooperative, possibly incompetent, and making covering its own ass the top priority).
However, I feel like Ryan’s diatribe is mostly focused at getting re-elected and making some headlines. I know that Congressional hearings are not court trials, but how would we feel if a judge got up in the middle of a trial to pose for the cameras? It’s just not the kind of serious behavior I think the proceedings deserve.
The country needs the GOP to look into this - the Democrats want no part of it, and will sweep it under the carpet as quickly as they will for any scandal during the administration of a Democrat.
And this -
is right on the money.
Regards,
Shodan
I think the silliness of this manufactured scandal will once again bite the GOP in the ass when voters show that they don’t care about petty crap like this and, oh yeah, the IRS investigated liberal groups too.
“I’m not going to comment on a third-rate burglary attempt.” – Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary, June 1972.
The whole Tea Party/IRS thing is just another part of “Operation Make Up As Many Scandals As Possible So Our Base Doesn’t Realize We Have Zero Ability To Govern And No Accomplishments And Oh Yeah Did We Mention Benghazi In The Last Five Minutes?” It’s a long name, they should probably shorten it.
The missing hard drive is a problem, though. I don’t think there was anything incriminating on it, but the fact that it’s missing is concerning in and of itself. I mean, the IRS being bad about keeping records is a little hypocritical.
Wrong! Voters do care and the polls show it. I really can’t get why Dems are being such fools over Benghazi and the scandalous use of the IRS against political opponents.
I am laughing at how much this is like Watergate.
What’s really screwed up is none of the groups should have gotten tax exempt status under the law which specified under 501©(4) “Civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.” and the IRS interpreted “exclusively” as “primarily”. That has been going on since 1959.
Interpreting it this way was not only illegal IMO, but also meant that more scrutiny was required so that delays were inevitable.
None – zero – of these organizations, conservative or liberal should have been approved. It is my understanding all of them save three eventually were approved. The three denied were Emerge Nevada, Emerge Maine and Emerge Massachusetts. The Emerge group tries to get more women to run for and be elected to political office so I think if it were put on one side of the spectrum that would be liberal, but I don’ t know anything other than that about them.
TEA Party groups shouldn’t be surprised if the IRS looks into their finances. TEA stands for “Taxed Enough Already” - they put it right up front that they don’t like taxes - why WOULDN’T the IRS be interested in them?
Does that extend to individuals? If I complain on a message board about the IRS, should I expect an audit?
THe IRS expects you to have all your records in order when they come calling. If you do not, to put it mildly, they will respond with, “I do not believe you.”
It’s entirely fair for the IRS to get the same treatment when they don’t have their shit together. Why should we believe them? They assume we are guilty, we should assume the same of them.