Conservative Outpost

Democrat Baucus warns: More to come out on IRS scandal

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:40:18 +0000

Source:

Paul Bedard

Original article:

Democrat Baucus warns: More to come out on IRS scandal

Senior Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who recently slapped Obamacare as a "train wreck," believes that the IRS scandal is just beginning and that "a lot more" damaging information will be revealed, likely at congressional hearings.

"I have a hunch that a lot more is going to come out, frankly," Baucus, whose pending retirement seems to have freed him up to speak bluntly, told Bloomberg Government's "Capitol Gains" TV show.

"It's broader than the current focus. And I think it's important that we have the hearings, and I think that will encourage other information to come out that has not yet come out. I suspect that we will learn more in the next several days, maybe the next couple three weeks which adds more context to all of this," added Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

But a House leader, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, said the scandal hasn't reached the level where a special prosecutor is warranted.

"I don't think we're [at the point of appointing a special counsel]. At least I'm not there yet," Camp told the show. "We need to know how and why and certainly try to restore the faith that's been broken and the trust that's been broken as people have been targeted for their political beliefs, which is completely unacceptable."

Camp's committee today opens the first of a series of hearings on the IRS and their political harassment of Tea Party groups.

Bloomberg released a series of highlights from the interview, to be aired Sunday. They are below:

Dave Camp on the IRS scandal:

"I don't think we're [at the point of appointing a special counsel]. At least I'm not there yet. We need to know how and why and certainly try to restore the faith that's been broken and the trust that's been broken as people have been targeted for their political beliefs, which is completely unacceptable." ...

A quick guide to Obama’s scandalrama

Drew McKissick — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:25:30 +0000

If you feel like you need a program to keep up with the rash of scandals coming out of Washington, you’re not alone. There’s stifling of political opposition, lying to Congress, intimidation of whistleblowers, lying to the public and a healthy dose of general incompetence.

Suffice it to say that Obama has found his legacy. He has set the new presidential speed record for achieving lame-duck status, going from inauguration to irrelevance in just four months. With three major scandals all coming to a boil at the same time, Democrats will be distancing themselves in droves before the dust settles.

The IRS Hokey-Pokey

All of America just found out what many conservative groups have known all along – that the IRS has spent years targeting them in order to minimize how effective they can be.

New information confirms that over a course of three years the IRS singled out groups for abuse if their names or descriptions included certain keywords like “tea party”, “9-12”, “patriot”, “constitution”, “voter fraud”, “government spending”, “limited government” or “Bill of Rights”.

The IRS demanded that such groups turn over more information about their activities, their donors, their websites and social media accounts, even asking questions about the political beliefs of personnel. Worse, at least one liberal group has admitted that the IRS sent them confidential copies of applications and other documents from thirty-one conservative groups.

Despite initial White House claims that the problem was just a bunch of low-level bureaucrats, we now know that top IRS appointees in Washington knew all about it – including IRS commissioners and chief counsels.

In the end, the abuse affected almost five-hundred conservative groups, with none receiving tax-exempt status for over twenty-seven straight months – time enough to reduce their impact on the 2012 elections. Meanwhile, liberal groups with words like “progressive” in their titles zipped right through the approval process.

There even seems to be evidence that such government abuse extended to other agencies. One group that was founded to fight against voter fraud found itself the target of an alphabet soup of government agencies, including a series of FBI inquiries about the group and its founders, ATF demands to see the family’s firearms, surprise audits of the founder’s gun dealership, and an OSHA audit of a family manufacturing business.

There are already calls from Congress for a special prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation, and once such a process gets started it can lead pretty much anywhere. Just ask Bill Clinton.

The Benghazi Shuffle

Despite months of disinterest by the press, the Obama administration is facing serious questions and a probable congressional select committee over how it dealt with the September 11^th attacks on our consulate in Benghazi.

There are three key elements to the scandal:

First, why did our State Department ignore repeated requests for more security from our diplomatic personnel in a place that intelligence agencies had reported as being frequented by terrorists?

Second, when our people were under attack, why didn’t our government begin moving Heaven and earth to help them? The White House claims there wasn’t time, as it would have taken too long to respond. But since they didn’t know “when” it would be over, why weren’t assets put in motion and kept in motion until it was?

Third, in the immediate aftermath why did the administration insist that this was just a violent movie review instead of a terrorist attack? Who whitewashed the official story of any references to terrorists, and why? (OK, you probably know the answer to that one, but they’ll never admit it.)

The biggest loser in this one is going to be Hillary. The odds that she will now actually have to fight for the 2016 nomination are increasing by the day.

The Telephone (records) Blues

This is the most recent and, for the press, the most creepy of the scandals.

The Justice Department admitted this week that it grabbed two months worth of phone records for over twenty phone lines used by the Associated Press in the Capitol Building, in addition to the personal phone records of at least five reporters in the process of investigating who leaked a story about a potential terrorist attack back in 2011.

Of course subpoenaing phone records is nothing new, but there are rules and procedures to follow which were ignored, plus two months worth is a rather wide net to cast. What future sources and whistleblowers are going to be confident that their anonymity will be protected now? Will they have to return to the days of trench coats and dark parking garages in order to avoid the prying eyes of Big Brother?

This scandal probably has shorter legs than the others, but it has burned a lot of goodwill in what has otherwise been Obama’s steno pool. Goodwill he will probably need when it comes to how they cover the other scandals.

***

The danger for Democrats is that Americans will note that these abuses of government power come courtesy of the same people who keep asking us to trust bigger and bigger government with more and more influence over our lives.

Kermit Gosnell's 'clinic of horrors'

admin — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:52:31 +0000

Source:

Cal Thomas

Original article:

Kermit Gosnell's 'clinic of horrors'

It was the pictures and riveting testimony that convinced a Philadelphia jury that abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was guilty of murdering three infants born alive following botched late-term abortions and also guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Karnamaya Mongar, who overdosed on Demerol during an abortion at Gosnell's clinic.

How ironic that the Gosnell decision was delivered the day after Mother's Day.

The two-month trial has reignited the abortion debate. But while many states have managed to impose some restrictions on abortion clinics and establish informed consent laws and in some cases require a woman to view a sonogram before aborting an unborn child, abortion on demand for almost any reason and at almost any stage of pregnancy remains legal in every state.

Maybe you heard about the Gosnell trial, maybe you didn't. Big media (except for Fox) certainly didn't give it a lot of play. One big media outlet, ABC News, refused even to cover it until it was nearly over. According to the Media Research Center, "ABC went from March 18, 2013 (the trial's start) through Monday afternoon with no coverage. Yet during the same time, the network devoted a staggering 187 minutes (or 70 segments) to other shocking criminal cases, such as Jodi Arias and Amanda Knox." That's 56 days of zero coverage. Why the blackout?

Veterinary clinics appear better regulated than many abortion clinics in this country, but the cleanliness and age of the buildings and instruments isn't the point. It's the estimated 55 million children -- and counting -- who are denied their right to live. ...

Weirdest IRS Questions for the Tea Party

admin — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:00:37 +0000

Source:

ABC News

Original article:

Weirdest IRS Questions for the Tea Party

As admitted by the IRS, and as detailed in a forthcoming Inspector General report, the agency targeted conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status for issue advocacy, a standard practice for political groups that aren’t mainly about elections.

The IRS sent long questionnaires to the organizations, and documents obtained by ABC News show that the questions were extensive. The Richmond Tea Party, for instance, was asked 17 detailed questions in 2010, and 12 more, with lots of bulleted sub-questions, in 2012. Other groups were asked about 30 questions in one letter, and most of the letters were similar, with some specific, quirky questions added or subtracted.

The Liberty Township Tea Party in Ohio got it worst, as the IRS asked about its relationship with a Cincinnati-area tea-party organizer and with a local group.

“It’s just hundreds of hours and plenty of money, and this was not something any American would want to have to deal with,” said Larry Nordvig, executive director of the Richmond Tea Party, who joined the group earlier this year after its IRS saga was over.

Here are some of the weirdest and most notable questions and requests that ABC found in roughly half a dozen IRS questionnaires sent to tea party groups from 2010 to 2012:

“Provide a list of all issues that are important to your organization. Indicate your position regarding each issue.”
“Please explain in detail the derivation of your organization’s name.” (in a letter to the Ohio-based 1851 Center for Constitutional Law) ...

Obamacare isn't about health care, it's about power

admin — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:43:09 +0000

Source:

Jim DeMint

Original article:

Obamacare isn't about health care, it's about power

Members of the House of Representatives are scheduled to vote Thursday to repeal all of Obamacare. Given that the House voted to repeal the law last year, some commentators and observers have questioned the need for another repeal vote.

However, the scandals coming to light over the last week perfectly make the case for why Congress must eradicate the law from the statute books.

On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service finally disclosed that it had spent years targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups, delaying their applications for non-profit status and giving those applications additional scrutiny — solely because of those groups' political beliefs.

Also on Friday, the Washington Post revealed that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius personally asked health industry groups to contribute to Enroll America, a pro-Obamacare front group working to "educate" the public about the law's supposed benefits.

While we don't yet know all the details about these scandals, we do know that the IRS grossly abused its power at a time when Obamacare grants it massive new authority. The Treasury Department's Inspector General has said Obamacare represents "the largest set of tax law changes in 20 years," with at least 42 provisions adding to or amending the tax code.

Obamacare taxes most people with health insurance, and most people without health insurance. Likewise, the law taxes many employers who provide health insurance, and most employers who don't provide health insurance. ...

Obama finds his legacy

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:45:01 +0000

Source:

Wes Pruden

Original article:

Obama finds his legacy

Barack Obama can relax and get to work on his hook shot and his putting. The presidential legacy he has fretted over is now clear, well established, safe and secure. The presidential historians can fire up their laptops and let the processing of words begin.

It’s too early to conclude, as some Republicans have, that the dam has broken, that the sleeping mainstream media has begun to come out of its sleeping-sickness stupor, and that even Democrats are about to leap out of the way. Not yet. But the dam has clearly sprung a leak.

Benghazi is no longer “the b-word,” to be relegated to furtive whispers behind the potted plant, spoken like the f-bomb and the n-word, the ugly burps in the language of the uncivilized and the indecent. “For a long time,” concedes Alex Koppelman in the New Yorker, “it seemed like the idea of a cover-up was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.”

And it’s not just Benghazi. The scandal at the Internal Revenue System frightens everyone, given that an IRS audit and a heart attack are the twin terrors of the wee hours of the night. “Previous presidents,” writes Joe Klein in Time magazine, “including great ones like Roosevelt, have used the IRS against their enemies. But I don’t think Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. In this specific case, he now is.” ...

Insurers predict 100%-400% Obamacare rate explosion

admin — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:47:25 +0000

Source:

Washington Examiner

Original article:

Insurers predict 100%-400% Obamacare rate explosion

Internal cost estimates from 17 of the nation's largest insurance companies indicate that health insurance premiums will grow an average of 100 percent under Obamacare, and that some will soar more than 400 percent, crushing the administration's goal of affordability.

New regulations, policies, taxes, fees and mandates are the reason for the unexpected "rate shock," according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which released a report Monday based on internal documents provided by the insurance companies. The 17 companies include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Kaiser Foundation.

The report found that individuals will face "premium increases of nearly 100 percent on average, with potential highs eclipsing 400 percent. Meanwhile, small businesses can expect average premium increases in the small group market of up to 50 percent, with potential highs over 100 percent."

One company said that new participants in the individual market could see a premium increase of 413 percent when new requirements on age rating and required benefits are taken into account, said the report. "The average yearly cost for a new customer in the individual market grows from $1,896 to $3,708 -- a $1,812 cost increase," it added. ...

IRS officials knew of tea party targeting

admin — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:19:24 +0000

Source:

Politico

Original article:

IRS officials knew of tea party targeting

Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew employees were singling out conservative groups for extra scrutiny as early as 2011, according to a watchdog agency’s report set to be released next week, POLITICO has confirmed from a congressional source.

The disclosure that senior officials knew agents were flagging applications containing the words “patriot” or “tea party” contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. He repeatedly denied that his agency was targeting conservative groups when asked by Congress last year.

“There’s absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people” who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee in March 2012.

The Internal Revenue Service is in the process of confirming when its leadership was informed, according an IRS statement released Saturday.

“IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing. The timeline does not contradict the Commissioner’s testimony. While Exempt Organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail,” the statement reads.

The revelation about senior leadership adds fuel to the agency’s admission Friday that at least 75 conservative groups were flagged for extra review because their tax documents contained the words “tea party” or “patriot.” ...

IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups

admin — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:32:46 +0000

Source:

Washington Post

Original article:

IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups, the documents show.

IRS employees in Cincinnati told conservatives seeking the status of “social welfare” groups that a task force in Washington was overseeing their applications, according to interviews with the activists.

Lois G. Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, told reporters Friday that the “absolutely inappropriate” actions were undertaken by “front-line people” working in Cincinnati to target groups with “tea party,” “patriot” or “9/12” in their names.

In one instance, however, Ron Bell, an IRS employee, informed a lawyer representing a conservative group focused on voter fraud that the application was under review in Washington. On several other occasions, IRS officials in Washington and California sent conservative groups detailed questionnaires about their voter outreach and other activities, according to the documents. ...

New bill would boost penalties on IRS lawbreakers

admin — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:26:14 +0000

Source:

Politico

Original article:

New bill would boost penalties on IRS lawbreakers

In the wake of an admission by an IRS official that conservative groups had been targeted for additional scrutiny, Rep. Michael Turner will introduce legislation Monday that would increase the penalty for singling out ideological organizations —including the possibility of jail time.

Turner, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said news about the IRS is an example of abuse of government power.

“Across the country, people are appalled to learn the IRS targeted people because of their political beliefs,” the Ohio Republican told POLITICO. “These are issues of basic rights of expression.”

He added, “This is an issue of whether or not authority has been abused in the government. They were doing this for all the wrong reasons.”

Turner’s bill would expressly prohibit an IRS employee from discriminating against a group or individual based on protected statuses. It also expressly states that political speech and expression are protectedstatuses and protect all political speech from being targeted by the IRS — not just that of conservative groups.

IRS employees are already prohibited from discriminating in the course of the work, but the highest level of punishment is termination. Under Turner’s law, the penalty would be increased to a fine up to $5,000, five years in prison or both. ...

Opportunity conservatism (policies that promote our principles)

admin — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:55:03 +0000

Source:

Stuart Butler

Original article:

Opportunity conservatism

A robust debate is under way about the future of conservatism, and there are plenty of lessons to be learned from the 2012 election and current trends in American politics. Unfortunately, the conversation so far has largely consisted of calls for modifying basic conservative positions, especially on social policy, and for targeting government spending and programs to appeal to particular demographic groups.

But layering new programs on top of an existing bloated framework is little more than low-budget liberalism. This approach fails substantively and will not widen support for the conservative message. Conservatives should reject the assumption that government handouts are the way to win friends and influence people.

The better and more confident way forward lies in America’s principle of limited government and its promise of unlimited opportunity. We need a smarter application of these ideas to the hard challenges of our day.

The liberal model has been a disaster. Government, far from acting as a catalyst for opportunity as intended, has become opportunity’s chief barrier. Government spending, taxing, and borrowing are killing the American economy, and we are wrapped in endless rules and regulations. Poverty rates remain high, our public-education system fails the least fortunate, and the family — the key to the well-being of children — is falling apart among poor and low-income Americans. Meanwhile, our ever-growing welfare state crowds out the very private activities and institutions that make up not only society’s best safety net but also its seedbed for self-improvement and advancement. And the government’s uncontrolled costs and unsustainable promises threaten long-term economic growth and will pass on crushing debt and social burdens to our children and grandchildren.

Conservatives must fundamentally reject the administrative, redistributionist, and creepy “Life of Julia” statism of modern liberalism. ...

The Benghazi Scandal Grows

admin — Sat, 11 May 2013 15:44:51 +0000

Source:

Stephen Hayes

Original article:

The Benghazi Scandal Grows

CIA director David Petraeus was surprised when he read the freshly rewritten talking points an aide had emailed him in the early afternoon of Saturday, September 15. One day earlier, analysts with the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis had drafted a set of unclassified talking points policymakers could use to discuss the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. But this new version?—?produced with input from senior Obama administration policymakers?—?was a shadow of the original.

The original CIA talking points had been blunt: The assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi was a terrorist attack conducted by a large group of Islamic extremists, including some with ties to al Qaeda.

These were strong claims. The CIA usually qualifies its assessments, providing policymakers a sense of whether the conclusions of its analysis are offered with “high confidence,” “moderate confidence,” or “low confidence.” That first draft signaled confidence, even certainty: “We do know that Islamic extremists with ties to al Qaeda participated in the attack.”

There was good reason for this conviction. Within 24 hours of the attack, the U.S. government had intercepted communications between two al Qaeda-linked terrorists discussing the attacks in Benghazi. One of the jihadists, a member of Ansar al Sharia, reported to the other that he had participated in the assault on the U.S. diplomatic post. Solid evidence. And there was more. Later that same day, the CIA station chief in Libya had sent a memo back to Washington, reporting that eyewitnesses to the attack said the participants were known jihadists, with ties to al Qaeda. ...

Poll: 61% of College-Age Students Want Government to Stay Out of Their Lives

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:15:22 +0000

Source:

CNS News

Original article:

Poll: 61% of College-Age Students Want Government to Stay Out of Their Lives

Since I graduated from college in 2009, the economy has remained stagnant and the job market has remained weak, with no sign of improvement. Just last week, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that the unemployment rate hit 7.5 percent.

While the mainstream media and our leaders in Washington want you to believe that the economy is getting better, thanks to more spending, higher taxes, and more regulation, six million people have dropped out of the work force since the recession began in 2008. Young Americans, especially, have it bad.

About 45 percent of 18 to 34-year olds are unemployed according to a recent poll by Demos, a public policy firm. I still know of college classmates who have yet to find meaningful jobs or are severely underemployed almost four years after graduation. However, a recent poll on young people's views of limited government, free markets, and economic liberty suggests some may be waking up to the conclusion that government, over-regulation, and more spending will not turn our futures around.

In a survey launched by Young America's Foundation and conducted by the polling company, Kellyanne Conway, Inc., more than 60 percent of college-age students feel that government should not take an active role in their day-to-day-lives, and half of respondents believe that the federal government is mostly hurting economic recovery.

President Ronald Reagan said, "Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States." And, as the poll suggests, young people share this belief: 66 percent of the students polled had a positive opinion of "entrepreneurship," 44 percent found "free markets" positive, and 42 percent believe the federal government is an opponent rather than a partner in the pursuit of the American Dream. ...

Beware of Liberals who come in Evangelicals’ clothing

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:05:40 +0000

Source:

Ann Coulter

Original article:

Beware of Liberals who come in Evangelicals’ clothing

Every few months since at least 2006, The New York Times takes time out from brow-beating Evangelicals to praise them for supporting amnesty for illegal aliens.Most of the “Evangelicals” the Times cites are liberal frauds, far from “unlikely allies” in amnesty, as alleged. It is a specialty of the left to pose as something they’re not in order to create the impression of a zeitgeist. The only one I haven’t seen quoted yet is the ACLU’s minister, Barry Lynn.

The Times keeps touting Evangelicals for Amnesty as evidence of a “shift,” a “change of heart” and a “secret weapon.” Breaking the same news story every two months since 2006 isn’t a shift; it’s propaganda.

Any Evangelical promoting the McCain-Rubio amnesty plan has the moral framework of Planned Parenthood. Like the abortion lobby, they have boundless compassion for the people they can see, but none for those they can’t see.

One Evangelical after another told the Times that they no longer believe Americans should have control over who immigrates here on the basis of having met illegal aliens in their pews. The millions harmed by illegal immigration are left out of the equation. They don’t go to church here.

Similarly, the pro-choice crowd is brimming with compassion for girls who have gotten pregnant by accident. They’re in high school, their whole lives are ahead of them, it’s one mistake! The babies don’t count because they’re out of sight. ...