“Report: Leader Of IRS Office That Targeted Tea Party Now Runs ObamaCare Office”

The Washington Post, “The woman who ran the office accused of targeting Tea Party groups is now running the office tasked with implementing ObamaCare. ABC News reported Thursday that Sarah Hall Ingram, the former director of the office that oversaw tax-exempt organizations during the alleged targeting of conservative groups, now leads the office in charge of the Affordable Care Act. The IRS did not immediately confirm ABC’s report. But as recently as March, Ingram was identified in an inspector general’s report as the director of the IRS’s Affordable Care Act Office. According to ABC, Ingram led the office that oversaw tax-exempt organizations from 2009 to 2012 — including at least part of the time during which that office is accused of singling out conservative groups for extra scrutiny of their applications for tax-exempt status.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd: Either A Conspiracy Or Incompetency

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe addressing the IRS scandal, Chuck Todd said, “Either this was a conspiracy or incompetency … Let’s say it’s incompetency.  Let’s assume the benefit of the doubt here and this was bureaucrats being stupid and incompetent and not realizing the extent of what they were doing.  Well, that’s not good either. Ok, and that doesn’t give a lot of confidence to the public that this is the agency that’s going to have at least a small role when it comes to healthcare.”

“IRS stalled conservative groups, but gave speedy approval to Obama foundation”

According to The Washington Post, “When the Barack H. Obama Foundation sought tax-exempt status to raise money for good works in Kenya, the Internal Revenue Service provided quick help. The IRS approved charitable status for the foundation, which was run by President Obama’s brother and named after his father, in about a month’s time. The IRS also agreed to give the group this important financial status retroactively, back to 2009, when it had begun its fundraising. The 34 days the IRS’s Cincinnati office took to process the foundation’s application stands in contrast to the waits of several months — and sometimes longer than a year — that several conservative groups say they experienced with the same office. … In 2009, the Barack H. Obama Foundation was accused by the National Legal and Policy Center of being a scofflaw. The group had been promoting itself as a charity and seeking donations that it said would be tax-deductible, but it lacked the required tax-exempt status. Groups must have or have an active application for tax-exempt status to solicit such donations.”

Poll: Majority Believe IRS Scandal Is Damaging to Obama

The National Journal reports, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how politically damaging is the IRS controversy to President Obama, with 1 representing “no damage” and 10 representing “highly damaging?”

DEMOCRATS (93 VOTES)

Average: 6.2

1-3: 10%


4-6: 40%


7-10: 50%

Read more…

Obama Appoints New IRS Commissioner

Bloomberg reports, “President Barack Obama appointed Danny Werfel, controller of the White House budget office, as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Werfel on May 22 will replace Steven Miller, who was forced to resign yesterday following disclosure of the agency’s selective scrutiny of small-government groups seeking tax-exempt status. ‘As we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time,’ Obama said in a statement released by the White House today. Werfel, 42, will serve until the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, the White House said. The acting IRS commissioner position doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Obama hasn’t nominated a permanent commission since the term of Douglas Shulman, a George W. Bush appointee, ended in November. Werfel was confirmed as controller of the Office of Management and Budget in October 2009. He is in charge all federal programs on financial reporting, curbing improper payments, selling surplus government property and streamlining government purchasing and information technology programs. The IRS announced today that a second official will leave the agency. Joseph Grant, who oversees tax-exempt organizations and government entities, will retire June 3, according to an IRS memo.”

IRS Scandal Opening Door For Tax Reform?

Bloomberg reports, “The scandal at the Internal Revenue Service reinforces the case for revising the U.S. tax code, Congress’s top tax writers said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ‘This actually leads to new momentum for tax reform,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus in a joint interview with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp.”

IRS Scandal Strengthens Effort to Repeal Obamacare

CNN reports, “The House of Representatives passed a measure to repeal Obamacare entirely on Thursday – a move the GOP-led chamber has done twice already. But the latest scandal involving the IRS, one of the key agencies charged with enforcing the health care law, is adding fuel to the political fire over the controversial new law. And Congressional Republicans are already citing a new development as another reason why health care needs to be rolled back. Sarah Hall Ingram, who heads the implementation of the Affordable Care Act at the IRS, formerly led the agency’s tax exempt/government entities division, the same division that’s now taking heat for targeting conservative groups in the past few years. … Given the political potency and fact that Obama is still dogged by the issue, Republicans are determined to continue linking the two issues. Legislation was introduced this week by GOP members in the House and Senate that would block the IRS from getting any new funding to hire personnel to implement Obamacare.”

GSA Violated Federal Regulations in Awarding $160,000 in Bonuses

The Washington Post reports, “The General Services Administration doled out cash awards to senior executives based on votes of confidence by colleagues who recognized their efforts at grooming talent and running ‘terrific and productive meetings,’ a new report reveals. The ‘Peer-2-Peer’ awards, which cost taxpayers $160,000 between fiscal 2009 and 2011, are among several flaws and violations of federal regulations the agency’s inspector general found in a review of GSA’s system of giving awards and bonuses and reviewing the performance of its top executives. The report, released late Thursday by Inspector General Brian D. Miller, found a system that lacked transparency and hid some of its practices from the Office of Personnel Management, the federal personnel agency. Executives’ rights to appeal their performance reviews were not protected, many bonuses and cash awards were not properly vetted and they were made for questionable reasons, Miller found. The problems ‘illustrate a willingness by GSA to violate legal requirements that resulted in an opaque evaluation and award system,’ the inspector general wrote. Such a ‘manufactured process’ made it impossible to tell if the awards were valid or not, he added.”

“The $642 Billion Excuse”

Robert Samuelson writes in The Washington Post, “In any other time and place, $642 billion would qualify as a lot of money. But in the Washington of 2013, it has been reduced to pocket change. When the Congressional Budget Office announced that it has cut its projected 2013 federal deficit to $642 billion — compared with 2012’s deficit of $1.1 trillion and an earlier 2013 estimate of $845 billion — there was an almost-palpable sigh of relief. The budget problem is taking care of itself. Congress and the White House can relax. No more self-destructive budget brawls. No more unpopular choices between tax increases and spending cuts. Can we get real? For starters, $642 billion is serious money, and despite the modest improvements of the latest CBO report, the basic trends in federal finances remain the same. From 2014 to 2023, the government will spend $6 trillion more than it collects in taxes. The budget never comes close to balancing. Expanding spending on the elderly and health care continues to strangle the rest of government. As a share of the economy (gross domestic product), military and domestic discretionary programs (examples: drug approval, environmental regulation, Head Start, federal courts) drop about 40 percent from 2010 to 2023.”

Farm Bill “will save considerably less money than first thought”

According to The Washington Guardian, “Despite all the promises of frugality in Washington, the newest version of the farm bill passed by the House boasts a price tag near $1 trillion and manages to send plenty of subsidies back to influential special interests in lawmakers’ home states. It includes millions of dollars to peanut, cotton and milk producers, plus improved crop insurance to protect farmers, creating new fodder for critics who believe such direct aid to farmers keeps food prices artificially high at taxpayer expense. … But the Congressional Budget Office said in March it believes the current farm bill will save considerably less money than first thought.  Last year, the CBO estimated that the Senate version of the bill could have reduced spending by $23.1 billion.  Now that number has been reduced to $13.1 billion.  Likewise, the House version was expected to save $35.1 billion, but that estimate has been rounded down to $26.6 billion.”

GOP Looks to Make Cuts on Top of Sequester

POLITICO reports, “House Republicans late Thursday began circulating new spending targets for appropriations bills for the coming year with Labor, Education and Health and Human Services facing a nearly 20 percent reduction on top of the cuts already made in the March 1 sequestration order. Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) appears to be backloading the larger reductions in order to salvage a few of the 12 annual bills this summer. He is putting a priority on what he sees as security items, including law enforcement and homeland security as well as the military. But the numbers are a prescription for more stalemate unless the House and Senate leadership begin to get more serious about budget negotiations with one another and President Barack Obama. Pentagon spending would rise to $512.5 billion, a roughly 6 percent increase over the reduced levels allowed under sequestration. But elsewhere, the landscape is bleak for most core domestic priorities for Democrats and the president.”

Republicans May Introduce Debt Ceiling Deal Early

POLITICO reports, “The House Republican leadership is considering releasing its debt ceiling plan before the August recess so lawmakers can actively sell it to their constituents. The idea gained traction in a closed meeting of the House Republican Conference this week, where the main topic was how the party should craft a plan to raise the nation’s debt cap. Plans for the legislation are not finalized, but the outlines of a measure are beginning to take shape. In addition to hiking the debt limit, the legislation is likely to have three categories: spending cuts, a framework for tax reform and what will be called a ‘jobs’ element, which will include energy legislation, which would likely be a provision related to the Keystone XL pipeline. Republicans are aiming to put the bill on the floor soon after the summer recess. … The idea of releasing legislation before the August recess is an important development for the House. It would — in essence — accelerate the debt ceiling debate by several months. The Congressional Budget Office this week said the nation would reach its borrowing limit in October or November. With Treasury’s extraordinary measures, aides say that deadline could slip to December — raising the specter of another year-end fight.”

Low Inflation Belies Sluggish Economy 

The Wall Street Journal reports, “The sluggishness of the U.S. economy is keeping a lid on inflation, leaving companies unable to increase prices and raising doubts about the durability of the recovery. Consumer prices fell 0.4% in April, the second straight month of declines, the Labor Department said Thursday. Over the past year, prices have risen just 1.7%, omitting food and energy, below the roughly 2% level that Federal Reserve officials consider healthy for the economy. While tame inflation is good news for consumers, it also reflects the considerable slack in the economy—including factories with spare capacity that isn’t being used and the nearly 12 million Americans who are looking for work but can’t find it. Until the economy starts firing on more cylinders, with more workers getting jobs and factories ramping up production, U.S. companies will find it hard to raise prices without losing customers. … Some Fed officials have said the recent easing of inflation could be transitory. ‘I don’t think we should overreact to temporary deviations, as long as we’re confident that’s what they are,’ Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said in a speech on Wednesday, before the latest consumer-price data were released.”