Bill O'Reilly vs. Barack Obama

Marriage News Watch: September 3, 2013

IRS Announcement For Married Same-Sex Couples

From Forbes Magazine: 

The IRS has taken lots of hits lately, but this is welcome news for same-sex couples, those considering marriage, and the tax preparation community that has long been scratching its collective head. Now it’s official. The IRS says anyone who is legally married is married for federal tax purposes. See Treasury Department Press Release.

It doesn’t matter whether you live in a jurisdiction that recognizes your marriage. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said, “This ruling also assures legally married same-sex couples that they can move freely throughout the country knowing that their federal filing status will not change.” See Treasury and IRS Recognize Same-Sex Marriages for Tax Purposes.

The IRS will apply this sea change September 16th, though you can actually amend for prior years as noted below. To see the text of Revenue Ruling 2013-17, click here. For Frequently Asked Questions, click here.

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While all marriages are covered, the ruling doesn’t cover registered domestic partnerships, civil unions, or similar formal relationships recognized under state law. For registered domestic partners who live in community property states, click here.

For more details, you can find the full article HERE.

How the IRS Enables the Breach of Church & State

From Raw Story: 

The Internal Revenue Service was unable to suppress a lawsuit over its failure to audit thousand of churches that allegedly violated federal tax law by engaging in partisan advocacy.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of the Western District of Wisconsin on Monday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation against the IRS.

“If it is true that the IRS has a policy of not enforcing the prohibition on campaigning against religious organizations, then the IRS is conferring a benefit on religious organizations (the ability to participate in political campaigns) that it denies to all other 501(c)(3) organizations, including the Foundation,” Adelman wrote.

The Internal Revenue Code prohibits tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches, from intervening or participating in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate.

But many churches have openly defied the ban without consequences. In an annual event called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” pastors from more than 1,000 churches have challenged the regulation by preaching about political topics. Some pastors even record their overtly partisan sermons and send them to the IRS.

"Progressive" & "Occupy" Groups Targeted By IRS

From Boston.com: 

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.

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The IRS document said an investigation into why specific terms were included was still underway. It blamed the continued use of inappropriate criteria by screeners on ‘‘a lapse in judgment’’ by the agency’s former top officials. The document did not name the officials, but many top leaders have been replaced. 

Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee released 15 lists of terms that the IRS agency used and has provided to congressional investigators. Some of the lists, which evolved over time, used the terms ‘‘Progressive’’ and ‘‘Tea Party’’ and others including ‘‘Medical Marijuana,’’ ‘'Occupied Territory Advocacy,’’ ‘'Healthcare legislation,’’ ‘'Newspaper Entities’’ and ‘‘Paying National Debt.’’ 

The lists were dated between August 2010 and April 2013 — the month before the IRS targeting of conservative groups was revealed. They ranged from 11 pages to 17 pages but were heavily blacked out to protect sensitive taxpayer information.

Transcripts Dismantle GOP Talking Points on IRS

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

From the Business Insider: 

... [Rep. Elijah] Cummings released transcripts with an IRS screening group manager described as a "conservative Republican," who said that the targeting of the Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status started with low-level workers in Cincinnati. The witness also said that there was no communication on the targeting with any senior IRS officials or with anyone in Washington or the Obama administration. 

Democrats have posted the key portion of the transcript here, in which the manager says he initially was made aware of a case involving a Tea Party group when an agent "asked for guidance." He agreed with the agent that there "wasn't enough information" to determine whether the group should have a tax-exempt status, and said he elevated the issue to his "area manager." 

The manager also said an official in the exempt organizations division in Washington was "pleased with the decision to elevate this case," but suggested there wasn't a political role in the targeting. 

"I do not believe that the screening of these cases had anything to do other than consistency and identifying issues that needed to have further development," the manager said...

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)

Republicans had been alleging that there was a link between what had been going on in the IRS' Cincinnati office and Washington and that Washington, possibly even the administration, had issued orders for the IRS to specifically target conservative/Tea Party groups for stricter scrutiny when it came to awarding tax-exempt status. That link has yet to materialize and the evidence that has been uncovered thus far seems to point away from a Washington-based cause. 

Rep. Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would release the transcripts from the House investigation, but stopped short of doing so. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Elijah Cummings, threatened to release the transcripts if Issa refused to do so. Cummings made good on his threat, and it seems evident why Issa did not want the transcripts released: the transcripts did not backup the GOP narrative of this supposed Obama scandal. The GOP should have gotten the facts before throwing around accusations.

Darrell Issa Won't Release the "Evidence"

From Think Progress: 

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is refusing to releasetranscripts of interviews with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents that allegedly prove how political officials in the Obama administration directed the IRS to target conservative groups applying for 501 (c)(4) status. 

The California congressman, whose committee is conducting an investigation into the agency’s behavior, provided CNN excerpts of interviews with IRS agents on June 2 and assured host Candy Crowley that “the whole transcript will be put out.” The portion purported to show an IRS official conceding that “directions” for to treat Tea Party groups “emanated from Washington,” though Issa himself conceded that that excerpt was not definitive. 

But in a letter to the top Democrat on the Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Issa appeared to back away from his pledge, arguing that releasing the transcripts would “needlessly jeopardize the integrity of the investigation and hamper the Committee’s ability to get to the truth.” Experts, he contested, are useful and “serve to provide important updates to the public” and “empower other witnesses to become whistleblowers.” 

During his appearance on CNN, Issa called White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a “paid liar” and claimed that the spokesperson is “making up things about what happens in calling this local rogue,” leading several Republicans to speak out against his tactics. A week later, Cummings appeared on CNN to challenge the Chairman. “I want those transcripts to be released,” Cummings said. “I’m willing to come on your show next week with the Chairman with the transcripts if he agrees to do that. If he doesn’t, I’ll release them by the end of the week.”

Why Some of That IRS Scrutiny Was Warranted

From the New York Times: 

When CVFC, a conservative veterans’ group in California, applied for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, its biggest expenditure that year was several thousand dollars in radio ads backing a Republican candidate for Congress. 

 The Wetumpka Tea Party, from Alabama, sponsored training for a get-out-the-vote initiative dedicated to the “defeat of President Barack Obama” while the I.R.S. was weighing its application. 

And the head of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, whose application languished with the I.R.S. for more than two years, sent out e-mails to members about Mitt Romney campaign events and organized members to distribute Mr. Romney’s presidential campaign literature. 

Representatives of these organizations have cried foul in recent weeks about their treatment by the I.R.S., saying they were among dozens of conservative groups unfairly targeted by the agency, harassed with inappropriate questionnaires and put off for months or years as the agency delayed decisions on their applications. 

But a close examination of these groups and others reveals an array of election activities that tax experts and former I.R.S. officials said would provide a legitimate basis for flagging them for closer review.

Another Reason the IRS "Scandal" Isn't A Real Scandal

Glenn Beck: AP & IRS Timed to Cover-Up Benghazi

Why the IRS "Scandal" is Not Obama's Watergate

From The Guardian: 

On the Watergate investigation:

The senators were, after all, working with a raft of indisputable material, including the January 1973 convictions of former President Nixon aides G Gordon Liddy and James W McCord, Jr. on charges of conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping in connection with the June 1972 Watergate break-in, and the April 1973 resignation and firing of other top White House staffers. The senators could afford to be methodical: there had been criminal activity, authorized and carried out at the highest level of the administration, and no amount of grandstanding would further dramatize those already damning facts. The committee set out to establish, in Senator Howard Baker's notorious words, "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

On the Internal Revenue Service incident:

But here's the critical fact: there's been no finding of criminal activity in the Obama administration, and the FBI's opening of a criminal investigation of the IRS should lay to rest accusations that the administration has failed to take the matter seriously. 

As Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters who broke the Watergate story, pointed out, there is no evidence the president ordered, much less knew about, the IRS scrutiny of conservative groups' tax-exempt applications. The Treasury Department's Inspector General report concluded that despite the fact that IRS personnel had used "inappropriate criteria" to identify which applications to subject to additional review, personnel told the IG that "the criteria were not influenced by any individual or organization outside the IRS". 

Until such time as there is concrete that President Barack Obama orchestrated or had knowledge of what happened with the IRS, calling it his Watergate is a misleading attempt by his political enemies to stir up hatred against him. Yet again, here is an example of the right making claims without the facts to back them up. How predictable.