‘Angry’ Obama says acting IRS chief fired over conservative targeting

President Barack Obama will make previously unannounced remarks on the IRS scandal at 6 p.m. Wednesday, his press office said. The president's statement from the East Room of the White House will come a little more than an hour after a meeting with senior Treasury Department officials to discuss the controversy, which centers on the IRS' acknowledgement that it improperly targeted conservative groups for scrutiny.

In a written statement late Tuesday, Obama called the IRS' behavior "intolerable and inexcusable," and said that he had directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew "to hold those responsible for these failures accountable."

On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder promised angry lawmakers that the Justice Department will undertake a national investigation into the IRS wrongdoing.

"We will take a dispassionate view of this," said Holder, who faced tough questioning from the House Judiciary Committee. "This will not be about parties ... anyone who has broken the law will be held accountable."

Holder said he had launched an investigation last Friday into why the IRS subjected conservative groups to more review when they applied for tax-exempt status. The IRS inspector general's report said that a group of low-level staffers in an Ohio office were responsible, and a top IRS official has apologized on their behalf.

But Holder promised that the investigation will look well beyond Ohio, and suggested that civil rights laws could have been violated.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., asked Holder at the hearing whether an "apology" from the IRS protected them from criminal prosecution. Holder answered, "No."

The Obama Administration is under fire over the IRS, the president's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Department of Justice's secret collection of telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.

Republicans have been hammering Obama on all three matters. While Democrats have largely defended him—and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—on Benghazi, they have joined their GOP colleagues in denouncing the IRS and in expressing deep concerns about the AP phone records.

On Monday, Obama dismissed Republican charges of a cover-up in the Benghazi situation as a "sideshow" lacking any merit. He has yet to comment directly on the AP issue.

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Conservative group says IRS approved nonprofit status after applying with ‘liberal-sounding name’

MediaTrackers.org

In May 2011, Drew Ryun, a conservative activist and former Republican National Committee staffer, began filling out the Internal Revenue Service application to achieve non-profit status for a new conservative watchdog group.

He submitted the paperwork to the IRS in July 2011 for a news site called Media Trackers, which calls itself a "non-partisan investigative watchdog dedicated to promoting accountability in the media and government." Although the site has investigated Republicans like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the site's organizers are apologetically conservative.

"One thing we don't hide is: 'Yeah, we're conservative—free-market, free-enterprise, full-spectrum conservative,'" Ryun told Mother Jones magazine last year.

Eight months passed without word from the agency about the group's application, Ryun said. In February 2012, Ryun's attorney contacted the IRS to ask if it needed more information to secure its non-profit status as a 501(c)3 organization. According to Ryun, the IRS told him that the application was being processed by the agency's office in Cincinnati, Ohio—the same one currently facing scrutiny for targeting conservative groups—and to check back in two months.

As directed, Ryun followed up with the IRS in April 2012, and was told that Media Trackers' application was still under review.

When September 2012 arrived with still no word from the IRS, Ryun determined that Media Trackers would likely never obtain standalone non-profit status, and he tried a new approach: Starting over. He applied for permanent non-profit status for a separate group called Greenhouse Solutions, a pre-existing organization that was reaching the end of its determination period.

The IRS approved Greenhouse Solutions' request for non-profit status in three weeks.

When news broke last week that the IRS had applied heavier scrutiny to conservative groups seeking non-profit status from 2010-2012, Ryun said he became convinced that his second application was approved quickly because he applied under the Greenhouse Solutions title, which he called a "liberal-sounding name."

"Within three weeks, Greenhouse received permanent non-profit status from the IRS, and the IRS approval was transmitted to us from its Cincinnati office. We then rolled the Media Trackers project into Greenhouse and began work on a number of new projects," Ryun told Yahoo News in an interview. "Do I think we benefited from what many think is a liberal-sounding name? Absolutely."

In December 2012, Ryun simply made Media Trackers a project of Greenhouse Solutions and withdrew the Media Trackers application.

The IRS website explains why some requests for tax-exempt status take longer than others to process.

"Sometimes, representatives of exempt organizations and practitioners question why certain applications for tax exemption are processed faster than others. Not all applications are the same," the site reads. "While many are complete when received and involve straight-forward scenarios, others may be incomplete or involve complex issues that require further development."

The IRS is currently under fire from both Democrats and Republicans, and Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday announced that he had directed the FBI to launch a criminal probe into the IRS. The same day, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration submitted a review of the IRS' practices, which found that the agency had used "inappropriate criteria" to determine which groups were eligible for non-profit status. Current and former IRS officials are expected to testify about the issue before House committees starting Friday.

View the original article here

Conservative group says IRS approved nonprofit status after applying with ‘liberal-sounding name’

MediaTrackers.org

In May 2011, Drew Ryun, a conservative activist and former Republican National Committee staffer, began filling out the Internal Revenue Service application to achieve non-profit status for a new conservative watchdog group.

He submitted the paperwork to the IRS in July 2011 for a news site called Media Trackers, which calls itself a "non-partisan investigative watchdog dedicated to promoting accountability in the media and government." Although the site has investigated Republicans like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the site's organizers are apologetically conservative.

"One thing we don't hide is: 'Yeah, we're conservative—free-market, free-enterprise, full-spectrum conservative,'" Ryun told Mother Jones magazine last year.

Eight months passed without word from the agency about the group's application, Ryun said. In February 2012, Ryun's attorney contacted the IRS to ask if it needed more information to secure its non-profit status as a 501(c)3 organization. According to Ryun, the IRS told him that the application was being processed by the agency's office in Cincinnati, Ohio—the same one currently facing scrutiny for targeting conservative groups—and to check back in two months.

As directed, Ryun followed up with the IRS in April 2012, and was told that Media Trackers' application was still under review.

When September 2012 arrived with still no word from the IRS, Ryun determined that Media Trackers would likely never obtain standalone non-profit status, and he tried a new approach: Starting over. He applied for permanent non-profit status for a separate group called Greenhouse Solutions, a pre-existing organization that was reaching the end of its determination period.

The IRS approved Greenhouse Solutions' request for non-profit status in three weeks.

When news broke last week that the IRS had applied heavier scrutiny to conservative groups seeking non-profit status from 2010-2012, Ryun said he became convinced that his second application was approved quickly because he applied under the Greenhouse Solutions title, which he called a "liberal-sounding name."

"Within three weeks, Greenhouse received permanent non-profit status from the IRS, and the IRS approval was transmitted to us from its Cincinnati office. We then rolled the Media Trackers project into Greenhouse and began work on a number of new projects," Ryun told Yahoo News in an interview. "Do I think we benefited from what many think is a liberal-sounding name? Absolutely."

In December 2012, Ryun simply made Media Trackers a project of Greenhouse Solutions and withdrew the Media Trackers application.

The IRS website explains why some requests for tax-exempt status take longer than others to process.

"Sometimes, representatives of exempt organizations and practitioners question why certain applications for tax exemption are processed faster than others. Not all applications are the same," the site reads. "While many are complete when received and involve straight-forward scenarios, others may be incomplete or involve complex issues that require further development."

The IRS is currently under fire from both Democrats and Republicans, and Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday announced that he had directed the FBI to launch a criminal probe into the IRS. The same day, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration submitted a review of the IRS' practices, which found that the agency had used "inappropriate criteria" to determine which groups were eligible for non-profit status. Current and former IRS officials are expected to testify about the issue before House committees starting Friday.

View the original article here

‘Angry’ Obama says acting IRS chief fired over conservative targeting

President Barack Obama will make previously unannounced remarks on the IRS scandal at 6 p.m. Wednesday, his press office said. The president's statement from the East Room of the White House will come a little more than an hour after a meeting with senior Treasury Department officials to discuss the controversy, which centers on the IRS' acknowledgement that it improperly targeted conservative groups for scrutiny.

In a written statement late Tuesday, Obama called the IRS' behavior "intolerable and inexcusable," and said that he had directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew "to hold those responsible for these failures accountable."

On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder promised angry lawmakers that the Justice Department will undertake a national investigation into the IRS wrongdoing.

"We will take a dispassionate view of this," said Holder, who faced tough questioning from the House Judiciary Committee. "This will not be about parties ... anyone who has broken the law will be held accountable."

Holder said he had launched an investigation last Friday into why the IRS subjected conservative groups to more review when they applied for tax-exempt status. The IRS inspector general's report said that a group of low-level staffers in an Ohio office were responsible, and a top IRS official has apologized on their behalf.

But Holder promised that the investigation will look well beyond Ohio, and suggested that civil rights laws could have been violated.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., asked Holder at the hearing whether an "apology" from the IRS protected them from criminal prosecution. Holder answered, "No."

The Obama Administration is under fire over the IRS, the president's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Department of Justice's secret collection of telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.

Republicans have been hammering Obama on all three matters. While Democrats have largely defended him—and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—on Benghazi, they have joined their GOP colleagues in denouncing the IRS and in expressing deep concerns about the AP phone records.

On Monday, Obama dismissed Republican charges of a cover-up in the Benghazi situation as a "sideshow" lacking any merit. He has yet to comment directly on the AP issue.

View the original article here

Republican leaders withdraw healthcare bill amid conservative concerns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the House of Representatives on Wednesday withdrew a bill that would change the Obama administration's healthcare law amid conservative concerns that the legislation was replacing one big government program with another.

The House cleared the way to debate the bill, which was designed to help Americans with pre-existing medical conditions while preventing the administration from using an alternate source of funding to implement its healthcare law.

But the "Helping Sick Americans Now" bill was pulled from the schedule before members could cast their votes, suggesting that Republican leaders did not have enough support from their own members. Democrats called the bill a political ploy by the Republicans.

An aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Republican leaders would bring the bill back up when Congress returns after a week-long recess in May. The legislation is not expected to go anywhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has threatened to veto it.

"We're going to continue working on the bill. We had positive conversations today and made good progress," the Republican aide said, noting that they had run out of time with some members leaving town.

Before the House debate, several Republican conservatives were openly opposing the bill and questioning why their leaders were even offering up the measure.

They said that House leaders should give first-term Republicans a chance to vote on repealing the entire Obama healthcare law. The Republican-controlled House has voted to repeal or defund the law more than 30 times since it was enacted in 2010.

"The issue I think many of us are having with this particular piece of legislation... you're replacing one big government program with another big government program," said Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho.

In January, at an annual meeting of House Republicans, party members examined how to respond to the November 6, 2012 election results in which they lost seats to Democrats.

Some Republican consultants advised the party to appear less dogmatic over budget issues, such as the need to cut government spending and domestic programs, and become more in tune with voters' day-to-day concerns.

Labrador, speaking on Wednesday at a press conference, said he agreed with House Republican leaders' goal to brush up the party's image with voters.

But he added: "Subsidizing healthcare is not what Republicans should be about. Republicans should be about managing health care" to lower costs for Americans.

The two-term Republican added, "I agree with his (Cantor's) premise that we need to do something about the struggles of ordinary Americans. Subsidizing the struggles of ordinary Americans is not the solution to the questions that we are facing."

The bill would reallocate about $4 billion from a special Prevention and Public Health Fund that the administration has been using to help finance the creation of health insurance exchanges, new state online marketplaces where low-to-middle income families can begin signing up for federally subsidized private insurance on October 1.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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"For Ukraine to move forward with its democracy, the time has come for opposing forces on important issues to find a way to compromise over seemingly intractable issues," says influential conservative commentator and long-term senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan

"For Ukraine to move forward with its democracy, the time has come for opposing forces on important issues to find a way to compromise over seemingly intractable issues," says influential conservative commentator and long-term senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan