President Obama Must be Made to Adhere to the Constitution

Latest information coming out of Washington strongly suggests that the Internal Revenue Service is still targeting tea party and conservative groups that file applications for tax-exempt status, more than three months after the scandal first burst onto the American scene. An aide to Representative Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Washington Post : "In plain English, the IRS is still targeting tea party cases." Camp, a Michigan Republican, released a transcript of testimony from an IRS agent who told a Ways and Means investigator that the agency was still targeting such groups. The testimony was given in a closed-door session on August 1. Camp called the continuing scrutiny "outrageous." The IRS agent, who was not identified, told the committee that applications for tax-exempt status from tea party groups are forced into a special "secondary screening" because the agency has not yet developed new application review guidelines for such groups. In the transcript Camp released, a Ways and Means investigator asked the IRS agent : "If you saw — I am asking this currently, if today if a tea party case, a group— a case from a tea party group — came in to your desk, you reviewed the file and there was no evidence of political activity, would you potentially approve that case? Is that something you would do?" The IRS agent answered : "At this point, I would send it to secondary screening, political advocacy," The Committee examiner asked : "So you would treat a tea party group as a political advocacy case even if there was no evidence of political activity on the application? Is that right?" The IRS agent : "Based on my current manager's direction, uh-huh." The original scandal erupted in early May when a Treasury Department inspector general revealed that nonprofit tea party, conservative, and religious groups had been singled out for special scrutiny by the IRS for their tax-exempt applications from 2010 through the 2012 presidential election. During this period, the IRS agents placed groups with words like "tea party and"patriot" in their names on a "be on the lookout" - or BOLO - list for additional screening of its applications for tax-exempt status. The 501(c)(4) status allows groups to keep their donors private. President Barack Obama fired Steven Miller, the head of the IRS, who apologized when testifying before the Ways and Means Committee, calling it "horrible customer service." Miller had been a deputy commissioner whose portfolio included the unit that decided on tax-exempt status. He was briefed about the practice by IRS officials sometime after May 2012. At least three other IRS officials have been replaced or put on administrative leave. Lois Lerner, who managed the IRS division that targeted the groups, is still on administrative leave after invoking her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination in May when she refused to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating the matter. Twenty-five such groups have since sued the IRS and the Obama administration in federal court over the additional, unconstitutional, scrutiny. But Danny Werfel, the acting head of the IRS, told Congress six weeks ago that the BOLO list had been suspended. He also reaffirmed the inspector-general report's finding that no employees or outsiders intentionally subjected tea party and other conservative groups to extra scrutiny. "While fact-gathering is still underway, we have not found evidence of intentional wrongdoing" by anyone outside or inside the IRS, Werfel said in June. But asked by the Ways and Means investigator how it now handles such applications, the IRS agent said: "If a political advocacy case came in today, I would give it, or talk about it. to my manager, because right now we really don't have any direction, or we haven't had any for the last month and a half." Ways and Means Chairman Camp says : "It is outrageous that IRS management continues to target tea party cases without any justification. The harassment, abuse, and delays these Americans have faced over the last few years has been unwarranted, unprovoked and, at times, possibly illegal. The fact that the IRS still continues to treat the tea party differently and subject them to additional targeting is outrageous - and it must stop immediately." ~~~~~ Dear readers, this revelation implies outrageous behavior by the Obama administration on several levels : (1). Putting in place clearly unconstitutionally discriminatory procedures to harass and delay the legitimate requests of conservative groups for tax exempt status. (2). Using the procedures to diminish the effectiveness of these conservative groups' participation in the 2012 presidential election, thereby making it easier for Obama to win re-election. (3). Lying to Congress - a criminal act - by saying that the practice did not exist...had existed but was ended...was confined to to the IRS Cincinnati officer when it was actually more widespread. (4). Lied to both Congress and America by saying the procedure had been stopped when it is, in fact, still being used today. ~~~~~ President Obama is responsible for the actions of his administration. It is now time to ask the White House for specific written answers to questions posed by the House Ways and Means Committee. Until President Obama is made to realize that he is not above the law, that the Constitution applies to him as it applies to all Americans, until he is forced to behave in a manner that comports with the historic role of the President in his relations with his administration, Congress and the American people, we will continue to see a President who behaves more like an absolute ruler than an American officer elected to uphold the Constitution.