Tea Party -- One Lump or Two?

The secret of Obama's birth certificate

2013-05-19T07:21:00.002-07:00

Now we know why Obama was tap dancing all week.

Obama is the secret love child of Sammy Davis Jr and Richard Nixon.

That's why the birth certificate is hidden.

John Ondrasik thinks it’s the people’s turn to audit the IRS

2013-05-18T03:16:00.001-07:00

John Ondrasik thinks it’s the people’s turn to audit the IRS

President Obama Is Not Doing His Job

2013-05-17T17:39:00.003-07:00

President Obama Is Not Doing His Job

Since the IRS engaged in years of voter suppression, Obama's regime is as illegitimate as he is.

Democratic Party voter suppression and the illegitimacy of the Obama regime

2013-05-17T17:33:00.001-07:00

It's Bigger Than Obama

May 17, 2013

RUSH: I am getting the sense that there is an effervescing rage in the country over what is happening. If you're watching these hearings today, if you are listening to the media, I hate to say, "I told you so," but the media is circling the wagons around the regime. It was just yesterday and the day before that people eagerly called here and were sending me e-mails, thinking this was it. "The media is finally going to turn on Obama!" I said, "It's never going to happen, not for real," and they are already circling the wagons.

One of the big memes, themes in the media today is, "Will the Republicans overplay handling the scandals? Will the Republicans overdo it," and how could the Republicans overdo it? "Well, they could overdo it by focusing on Obama, because the public loves Obama. The people that voted for Obama love Obama. They don't think Obama's done anything wrong! So if the Republicans start focusing on Obama, then Obama will be stronger!" This is what the Drive-Bys are saying.
There may be, by the way, something to that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, it's becoming more and more clear, more and more obvious that President Obama is using the full weight -- has used, in fact, the full weight -- and resources of the federal government to literally block the political participation of millions of American citizens. Every day we are treated to new discoveries, new evidence. The latest is: Conservative Hispanic groups were targeted by the IRS, groups that wanted to found tax-exempt organizations.
We have also learned that the woman who was in charge of this has been promoted. She received a total of $103,000 in bonuses. She is now running the Obamacare division of the IRS. The woman in charge of denying conservative groups tax-exempt status! This is a fear that many people had. In fact, it is Obamacare, ladies and gentlemen... If you want to really go back to the origins of this, it's Obamacare that gave birth to the Tea Party. Not the passage, but Obama's first expression of desire, and then the two years of debate.
People in this country realized what that would mean if the government took over health care and nationalized one-sixth of the US economy. In addition to everything else Obama was doing, people realized what it would mean to the future, what it would mean for their kids' and their grandkids' future, what it would mean to the shrinking private sector, the shrinking opportunity to earn prosperity in the private sector. And it mobilized people.
It gave birth to the Tea Party. The Tea Party became educated and informed. Here's how they compete. They learned what it was necessary to do to compete and raise money. They learned that 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(4)s are tax-exempt charitable organizations just like the Democrats have. We now learn that the IRS tried to deny as many of those applications as possible, and the woman in charge of that was promoted and has now been placed over the Obamacare division of the IRS.

People, since the first days of discussion of Obamacare, have asked what turn out now to be very intelligent questions. "What if I didn't vote for Obama? What if I'm not a Democrat? What's that gonna mean for me when I get in line for health care when the government runs it?" Well, here's a pretty good indication of what it could mean. You might be moved to the back of the line, while Democrat voters, Obama donors get moved to the front of the line.
The government will be running health care. Essentially, the government will be your gateway to access. They can grant it or deny it. This is what happens when liberals end up in charge of government: Big government, out-of-control government, tyrannical government, if you want to say that. But it just expands, and the government ends up populated with people who are there to use the power and the full force of government against citizens. This is what has happened and what will get worse.
It's become clear now, more and more clear, that Obama used the full weight and resources of the federal government to block the political participation of millions of Americans. There is no media outrage over this. Again, the media is focused on, "Gee, can Obama survive this? Gee, how will the Republicans screw up investigating this?" This is the kind of stuff that happens in banana republics and totalitarian regimes. You know, Americans have always said, "It can't happen here."
A member of Congress during the hearings of these IRS people this morning even asked, "Is this still America?" It's not some bitter clinger, desperately trying to hold onto his guns while he goes to church. It's not some bitter clinger asking, "Is this still America?" It's a Republican member of Congress. During the hearings said to an IRS employee and to the audience watching, "Is this still America?" It is happening here.
Everywhere you look in the Drive-By Media, you see the media doing everything they can to downplay the scandal. CNN, for instance, has covered everything under the sun. They have been dragged kicking and screaming to the IRS scandal. They've covered it some but they're not wall-to-wall with it. They're doing it as an afterthought. The news media have become the information launderers for Obama, which is exactly what the media's role is when it is in bed with leaders of the regime.

They launder news and information so that nothing harmful to the regime gets out. Where were the whistleblowers? Is the culture of corruption so pervasive at the IRS that so many people felt they could get away with these illegal activities? Do you realize how easy it must have been for these IRS employees to go to work each and every day? They never worried about what they were doing. They just lowered the hammer on all these conservative groups and they never once worried that anybody would rat 'em out.
"NBC's Lisa Myers reported this morning that the IRS deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election." Duh! So inside the IRS, nobody was worried about whistleblowers. There was nobody in there doing this nefarious activity that was worried about anybody blowing the whistle on them. There weren't any whistleblowers.
Was the oppressive work being done at the IRS so encouraged that no one had the guts to come forward to report what was going on? Or were the people at the IRS threatened and coerced to keep silent just like the whistleblowers at the State Department were told in the case of Benghazi? About that, Bob Woodward is saying, "Hey, don't call Benghazi a scandal. It's worse than a scandal!"

Bob Woodward is saying it's like Watergate. What he means is, when they had tapes of Nixon in the Oval Office. You could hear Nixon say, "No, we're not gonna report that. Delete that. No, we're not gonna publish that part of the transcript. Take that out." He said that's exactly what happened with the Benghazi transcripts, these Benghazi e-mails. He said the regime has taken two days and pretended nothing happened. There's no e-mails in those two days, and what they have released is sanitized.
Even after 94 e-mails, not a word about the video. Not a single word about what the regime said was the primary reason Benghazi happened. There's not a word in the e-mails back and forth among any of the principles in Benghazi. But back to the IRS. You had one or two people in the Cincinnati office putting the brakes on all the conservative, tax-exempt applications being directed out of Washington. There was nobody apparently worried that they would have the whistle blown on them for doing this.
I made the point yesterday: You don't need to hire people and give them instruction. You hire people because they already know what to do. You hire fellow travelers. You hire hacks, you hire activists, you hire true believers. You hire people who rejoice in the opportunity to get a job in the bureaucracy because what that means is it's an opportunity to wage war on your political enemies.

I have a story in the Stack here about the government, ladies and gentlemen. "Homeland Security Guidelines Advise Deference to pro-Shariah Muslim Supremacists." This is the Daily Caller. Now, I think this is an important point to make. "The Department of Homeland Security, which under Secretary Janet Napolitano has shown a keen interest in monitoring and warning about outspoken conservatives, takes a very different approach in monitoring political Islamists, according to a 2011 memo on protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists."
The Obama regime, the federal government, has more tolerance, more deference, more respect for Islamic extremist Muslims than they do for their own citizens who happen to be conservative or Christian. This administration considers conservative Americans and Christians and pro-lifers and people who care about the social issues, to be greater enemies of the state and not worthy of respect or deference. However, militant Islamists and extremist Muslims are accorded all of that.
"The Homeland Security document also seems to discount evidence unearthed by the Justice Department about the aims of some mainstream Muslim organizations.." Instead, Big Sis sends out memos warning everybody at DHS: Make sure you do not infringe upon the free speech rights -- the constitutional free-association right, whatever -- of pro-Sharia Muslim supremacists. But when it comes to American conservatives and American Christians, this administration is willing to trample all over their constitutional rights and continue denying them -- and then warn everybody that it is they, these conservatives and these Christians, who pose the real threat to America.
And, folks, they mean it.
They really mean it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to play a sound bite from Mike Lee, who is a senator from Utah, a Republican. He was on Greta Van Susteren last night. This guy is right after my own heart, folks. She said, "You've written an article. You said it's not about character or competence. It is about big government. That's where you lay all the blame for all this, in big government, right?"
LEE: This isn't about one particular person. It's not necessarily even just about one particular party. Although one party is in control of government right now, and it's certainly to blame for what happened here. This is bigger than that. When our federal government gets to be something that spends $4 trillion a year, it's unmanageable. This is one of the few moments where I find myself agreeing with something David Axelrod has said. He said yesterday that the federal government's just too vast for any one person, including the president of the United States, to be able to control. That means it's time to ramp it down. That means it's time to simplify. That means that what we have is too dangerous to be trusted.

RUSH: Nah, he doesn't go far enough as far as I'm concerned. He's on the right track. He's agreeing with Axelrod. But don't forget, Axelrod said all this. "It's too big! I mean, for crying out loud, government is too vast! Obama couldn't possibly control it!" He's not saying the government's too big. He's saying, "Obama couldn't possibly be responsible for any of this. It's too big."
He's just trying to excuse Obama, but he's not criticizing big government. Axelrod isn't. Now, Mike Lee is right, but you can tie a political party to big government more so than any other party. But his point is this is a result of what happens when you have people populating big government who have a particular ideology about government's use. That's why we're where we are. It's not just Obama. It doesn't even have to be Obama.
It's all the people Obama has hired.
There are miniature Obamas all over this government doing his bidding for him.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's the next Mike Lee sound bite. He was on with Greta Van Susteren last night. He's the Republican senator from Utah, and he's mostly right in what he's saying. Van Susteren's question: "What do you make of this IRS scandal and the targeting of the Tea Party? I mean, why do you think it happened? Do you think it's just a couple rogue people at the bottom -- or do you think it's part of the culture, part of the big government -- or even something more sinister?"
LEE: What sparked a lot of this was Obamacare. A few years ago, some groups started putting themselves together as a result of the fact that they were afraid about the fact that the federal government was about to get a lot bigger and a lot more expensive as a result of Obamacare. They started speaking their minds, and all of a sudden the ruling class in Washington got scared, and it started retaliating before this movement could gain too much momentum. And that's why this happened. And it's no coincidence, Greta, that the IRS -- which is about to become a lot more powerful as a result of Obamacare -- was threatened by these groups that were trying to undermine Obamacare.
RUSH: Now, he's far more right than he's wrong. What Mike Lee's trying to do here is win the argument. What he's trying to do is persuade as many Obama voters, low-information voters as he can. He's not trying to give you what you want. He knows you're already there. He's trying to find ways to reach the outliers, and he believes that he's gotta leave Obama out of that equation if we're gonna succeed. I, by the way, folks, agree with that in this sense: This is much bigger than Obama.

Although it is Republicans versus Democrats right now, it's much bigger than that. It's all of us versus Washington. This is the ruling class of Washington attempting to have its way with all of us, the peons, the hoi polloi, the bourgeoisie. Now, I understand. I'm into persuasion, too, and I would love to have a bunch of Obama voters call here and tell me, "You know what? I laughed at you, and I hated you, and I cussed you for the last five years. But you know what? You're right."
I would love for that to happen. But, you know what, folks? It isn't going to. Even if these people end up thinking that way, they're never going to give you or me the satisfaction of calling and saying, "You know what? You're right." It's never gonna happen. So don't set yourself up to define success that way. The reason this is bigger than Obama -- and the reason it needs to be talked about/attacked as something much greater than Obama -- is that he's gonna leave.
But if the Democrat Party remains in power, the same stuff's gonna keep happening. They're gonna use the IRS against people. They're going to do same kind of things. They're corrupt! The Democrat Party is liberalism. Liberalism is the problem here. Liberalism, socialism, big government-ism, whatever you want to call it. Everywhere you look, the media's doing everything it can -- and they think they're helping him. "He didn't know. He didn't know. He didn't know that, because it's too big. He couldn't possibly have known."
They're trying to excuse Obama from having any personal role in any of this. The point is, he doesn't need to have a personal role in this to be responsible for it. Obama is a charismatic figure. Obama is the leader of the Democrat Party, and he is a radical, and he motivates and inspires other radicals to want to get involved helping him -- and they do. He doesn't have to ever meet them. He doesn't even have to know them.
They could show up and apply for a gig at the IRS. They can be an Obama donor. They get the job based on whether they know what to do. They're in there trying to please him. They've never met him. It doesn't matter. He doesn't have to issue anybody any instructions. Liberals are a certain kind of people. For 25 years, I've gone at it I don't know how many ways. I've tried to convince people that the battle in this country is ideological.
Most people aren't ideological and they don't want to be ideological, which is frustrating to me because it's the simplest and fastest way for people to understand what they face. But given that most people don't want to go there, okay, so what do we do? Well, the thing we don't do is we don't make it about Obama, because really that's missing the point. If we focus on Obama as the bad guy, we're leaving out all the other guilty parties.
And, believe me, they're there in the hundreds of thousands.

There are countless thousands of little Obama's all over this government, and before him there were thousands of little JFKs and little Teddy Kennedys. Take your favorite radical. Do you think Nancy Pelosi needed Obama to be who she is? Do you think Harry Reid needs Obama to be who he is? These people are who they are because of who they are. They're gonna be who they are regardless, and they are going to use the power of government whether Obama's the president or whether it was Ted Kennedy or whether it was Bill Clinton.
Or whether it's George W. Bush, they're gonna be who they are! The thing for the American people to understand is that this is Washington governing against the will of the American people. Now, the challenge we face is that there are a lot of Americans who simply love it when these conservative groups take it on the chin. There are a lot of Americans who love it when the IRS is dumping all over conservatives.
There are a lot of Americans who are applauding the IRS today because the radicals on the left have spent 50 years ginning up hatred for us. They have impugned our character. They've lied about the things we believe. They've lied about our racism, sexism, bigotry, homophobia. All that stuff has found its way into the mainstream. S

Download entire message

Voices call for abolishing the IRS

2013-05-17T16:41:00.001-07:00

News Release
May 17, 2013

Libertarian Party: Don't waste time investigating IRS, abolish it NOW along with income tax
Return to 1992 spending level would allow balanced budget, end to income tax

The presidential administrations of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and, now, Barack Obama have all been caught using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to target political enemies.
As long as we have the IRS — and the income tax — we should expect more presidents to use their power to silence and intimidate free voices. No IRS investigation or firing of a few scapegoats will change that.
"We must abolish the IRS and end any need for a regulatory agency that snoops into people's private lives," said Libertarian Party Executive Director Carla Howell. "We must draw back total federal spending to the level of 1992, which is more than enough to fulfill the government's constitutional duties to protect our life, liberty, and property. This will allow us to balance the budget immediately, end the federal income tax completely, and give back an average of more than $12,000 to every family in America."
"We don't need an income tax, and we certainly don't need the IRS," Howell said.
The Libertarian Party is the only political party in America calling for both dismantling the IRS altogether and dramatically and immediately downsizing Big Government.
"The Libertarian Party is running candidates to dramatically downsize the federal government," Howell said. "We can cut federal spending by 50 percent, or even 90 percent, and Americans will be better for it. We can end the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, the death tax, and all federal payroll taxes. There will be no need for the IRS, nor any substitute agency."
"Ending the income tax, abolishing the IRS, and cutting federal spending to the level of 1992 means no more deficit spending," Howell said. "This will stop inflation and stabilize prices. Even more importantly, it will transfer wealth out of the wasteful, dysfunctional and destructive government sector and into the productive private sector, resulting in a bounty of new jobs and prosperity for Americans."
"We will make living in America and doing business in America much better," Howell said. "Individuals, businesses, and political organizations will all be safe from government interrogation and free to express their political views. It will dramatically increase the wealth of the private sector and inspire hundreds of billions of dollars in investment in small businesses and American jobs."
Another benefit of abolishing the IRS is that it would become far more difficult to fund massive interventionist military presence and warfare around the globe.
"It will also require our massive military budgets to go down, which currently encourage overseas meddling and war," Howell said. "We get rid of the IRS, we get rid of the income tax, we dramatically downsize federal spending and taxation, and America and the world will be better for it."

Please donate to the Libertarian Party, working to advance peace, individual rights, and American prosperity.

Paid for by the Libertarian National Committee
2600 Virginia Ave, N.W. Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20037
Content not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Feds Push Insane New Speech Codes!

2013-05-16T14:21:00.001-07:00

Feds Push Insane New Speech Codes!

Obama aims to halt perception of passive president

2013-05-16T05:31:00.001-07:00

Obama aims to halt perception of passive president | WashingtonExaminer.com

Breaking: Obama says he is a Kenyan prince, claims diplomatic immunity.

Breaking News

2013-05-16T02:03:00.003-07:00

Breaking: Obama says he is a Kenyan prince, claims diplomatic immunity.

Democratic strategist: Party 'in decline'

2013-05-15T09:57:00.001-07:00

Democratic strategist: Party 'in decline' - POLITICO.com

IRS scandal

2013-05-15T08:36:00.001-07:00

George F. Will: Opinion Writer

In IRS scandal, echoes of Watergate

By George F. Will, Published: May 13 E-mail the writer

“He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to . . .cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.”

— Article II, Section 1, Articles of Impeachment against Richard M. Nixon, adopted by the House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974

George Will

Will writes a twice-a-week column on politics and domestic affairs.

Archive

EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups

2013-05-14T06:02:00.001-07:00

EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups | WashingtonExaminer.com

Internal IRS Mandate: 'Be on the Lookout' for 'Organizations Involved In ... Educating on Constitution and Bill of Rights'

2013-05-14T03:04:00.001-07:00

Internal IRS Mandate: 'Be on the Lookout' for 'Organizations Involved In ... Educating on Constitution and Bill of Rights' | CNS News

Rand Paul "Assures" Evangelicals That He Doesn't Want to End the Drug War

2013-05-13T11:18:00.001-07:00

Rand Paul "Assures" Evangelicals That He Doesn't Want to End the Drug War

Opinion: Helping Mark Sanford turn it around

2013-05-13T07:32:00.001-07:00

Opinion: Helping Mark Sanford turn it around - Heather R. Higgins and William W. Pascoe III - POLITICO.com

With Blood on Their Hands

2013-05-13T03:48:00.001-07:00

With Blood on Their Hands

So on MSNBC's Cup of Stale Lisa Myers, Mika "Aryan Ruling Class Princess" Brzeniski, Joe Scarbourough and a Politico nerd are pretending they are journalist since they are covering Benghazi the way a journalist would have when it happened last September. But they did not because they were actually Obama campaigners and their shows were all Obama ads, "news twisters" as Edith Efron proved decades ago.

Relatives of Top CBS, ABC and CNN Executives Helping Obama on #Benghazi!

2013-05-12T09:47:00.001-07:00

Relatives of Top CBS, ABC and CNN Executives Helping Obama on #Benghazi!

How the IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups for Abuse

2013-05-12T06:37:00.003-07:00

How the IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups for Abuse

2013-05-12T06:37:00.001-07:00

How the IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups for Abuse

Report: Top IRS officials knew of Tea Party targeting two years ago

2013-05-12T06:14:00.001-07:00

Report: Top IRS officials knew of Tea Party targeting two years ago - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Ask IRS chief Douglas Shulman about harassment of tea party groups

2013-05-12T05:05:00.001-07:00

If you like to write to Douglas Shulman, CEO at the IRS, he lives at:

Home (202) 333-0234

2706 36th St NW
Washington, DC 20007-1421

Age:	45-49
Associated:	Susan L Anderson

Legal Subdivision: Observatory Circle

No Photos

Tax Neighbor Photos

Incorporated City: WASHINGTON DC

Virtual Earth Maps

Owner Name: Susan L Anderson

Absentee:No

Additional: Shulman, Douglas

Resource Center
Property History

Mailing Address: 2706 36TH ST NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20007-1421

Community Information
Assessor Map
Washington DC Tax Website

Care of Name:

Transfer Date	Price	Grantor	Grantee
01-May-2003	$1,335,000		Anderson, Susan L

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.

The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.

But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog's report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says.

The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck. In a statement to the AP, Beck suggested that the revelations were hardly news to him and other conservatives.

"In February 2012, TheBlaze first reported what the IRS now admits to — that they unfairly targeted conservative groups including the 9/12 project," Beck said, citing his website and TV network. "It is nice to see everyone else playing catch-up and finally asking the same questions that TheBlaze started raising over a year ago."

Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately," the report says.

The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The AP obtained part of the draft report, which has been shared with congressional aides.

Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS' Rulings and Agreements office "held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue."

On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement," the report says.

While this was happening, several committees in Congress were writing numerous letters IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to express concern because tea party groups were complaining of IRS harassment.

In Shulman's responses, he did not acknowledge targeting of tea party groups. At a congressional hearing March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman said at the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing.

The portion of the draft report reviewed by the AP does not say whether Shulman or anyone else in the Obama administration outside the IRS was informed of the targeting. It is standard procedure for agency heads to consult with staff before responding to congressional inquiries, but it is unclear how much information Shulman sought.

The IRS has not said when Shulman found out that Tea Party groups were targeted.

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now run by an acting commissioner, Steven Miller.

The IRS said in a statement Saturday that the agency believes the timeline in the IG's report is correct, and supports what officials said Friday.

"IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing," the statement said. "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."

Lerner's position is three levels below the commissioner.

"The timeline supports what the IRS acknowledged on Friday that mistakes were made," the statement continued. "There were not partisan reasons behind this."

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's oversight subcommittee, said the report "raises serious questions as to who at IRS, Treasury and in the administration knew about this, why this practice was allowed to continue for as long as it did, and how widespread it was."

"This timeline reveals at least two extremely unethical actions by the IRS. One, as early as 2010, they targeted groups for political purposes. Two, they willfully and knowingly lied to Congress for years despite being aware that Congress was investigating this practice," Boustany said.

"This is an outrageous abuse of power. Going after organizations for referencing the Bill of Rights or expressing the intent to make this country a better place is repugnant," Boustany added. "There is no excuse for this behavior."

Several congressional committees have promised investigations, including the Ways and Means Committee, which plans to hold a hearing.

"The admission by the agency that it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both shocking and disappointing," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. "We will hold the IRS accountable for its actions."

The group Tea Party Patriots said the revelation was proof that the IRS had lied to Congress and the public when Schulman said there had been no targeting of tea party groups.

"We must know how many more lies they have been telling and how high up the chain the cover-up goes," Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for the group Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement Saturday.

"It appears the IRS committed crimes and violated our ability to exercise our First Amendment right to free speech. A simple apology is not sufficient reparation for violating the constitutional rights of United States citizens. Therefore, Tea Party Patriots rejects the apology from the Internal Revenue Service," Martin said. "We are, however, encouraged to hear that Congress plans to investigate. Those responsible must be held accountable and resign or be terminated for their actions."

On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration expected the inspector general to conduct a thorough investigation, but he brushed aside calls for the White House itself to investigate.

Many conservative groups complained during the 2012 election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups have made available, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors.

There has been a surge of politically active groups claiming tax-exempt status in recent elections — conservative and liberal. Among the highest profile are Republican Karl Rove's group Crossroads GPS and the liberal Moveon.org.

These groups claim tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which is for social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities, but their primary activity must be social welfare.

That determination is up to the IRS.

The number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.

Lerner said on Friday this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity.

As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.

"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner told the AP on Friday. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Missouri Legislature Nullifies All Federal Gun Control

2013-05-11T11:26:00.001-07:00

Missouri Legislature Nullifies All Federal Gun Control

ABC News bureau damaged by DC water main break, after they report on Benghazi

2013-05-11T09:53:00.001-07:00

ABC News bureau damaged by NW D.C. water main break | WJLA.com

ABC News bureau damaged by NW D.C. water main break | WJLA.com

So ABC is the first "mainstream" media to report on the Benghazi coverup and its offices get flooded. On the same day the White House press corp is smoked out of the building by a fire in a mechanical room. The day after President Obama scheduled press briefings all day in an attempt to not answer questions, until many reporters just left the White House. Funny coincidence. Though in DC these truck swallowing street sink holes open downtown every year.

Rand Paul's early state mojo

2013-05-11T07:57:00.001-07:00

Rand Paul's early state mojo - Alexander Burns - POLITICO.com

Russia delivers another al-Qaida warning to U.S. Jihadists purportedly being armed by Obama administration

2013-05-11T07:50:00.001-07:00

Russia delivers another al-Qaida warning to U.S. Jihadists purportedly being armed by Obama administration

PAUL: The moment of responsibility for Hillary Clinton

2013-05-11T04:28:00.001-07:00

PAUL: The moment of responsibility for Hillary Clinton - Washington Times

Tea Party -- One Lump or Two?

The secret of Obama's birth certificate

John Ondrasik thinks it’s the people’s turn to audit the IRS

President Obama Is Not Doing His Job

Democratic Party voter suppression and the illegitimacy of the Obama regime

It's Bigger Than Obama

Voices call for abolishing the IRS

Feds Push Insane New Speech Codes!

Obama aims to halt perception of passive president

Breaking News

Democratic strategist: Party 'in decline'

IRS scandal

In IRS scandal, echoes of Watergate

By George F. Will, Published: May 13 E-mail the writer

EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups

Internal IRS Mandate: 'Be on the Lookout' for 'Organizations Involved In ... Educating on Constitution and Bill of Rights'

Rand Paul "Assures" Evangelicals That He Doesn't Want to End the Drug War

Opinion: Helping Mark Sanford turn it around

With Blood on Their Hands

Relatives of Top CBS, ABC and CNN Executives Helping Obama on #Benghazi!

How the IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups for Abuse

How the IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups for Abuse

Report: Top IRS officials knew of Tea Party targeting two years ago

Ask IRS chief Douglas Shulman about harassment of tea party groups

AP Exclusive: IRS knew tea party targeted in 2011

RELATED CONTENT

Missouri Legislature Nullifies All Federal Gun Control

ABC News bureau damaged by DC water main break, after they report on Benghazi

Rand Paul's early state mojo

Russia delivers another al-Qaida warning to U.S. Jihadists purportedly being armed by Obama administration

PAUL: The moment of responsibility for Hillary Clinton