Turns out those IRS agents just hated everybody
by digby
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 said Monday.
An internal IRS document obtained by The Associated Press said that besides “tea party,” lists used by screeners to pick groups for close examination also included the terms “Israel,” ”Progressive” and “Occupy.” The document said an investigation into why specific terms were included was still underway.
In a conference call with reporters, Danny Werfel said that after becoming acting IRS chief last month, he discovered wide-ranging and improper terms on the lists and said screeners were still using them. He did not specify what terms were on the lists, but said he suspended the use of all such lists immediately.
“There was a wide-ranging set of categories and cases that spanned a broad spectrum” on the lists, Werfel said. He added that his aides found those lists contained “inappropriate criteria that was in use.”
Well hell. They weren’t a bunch of Obamabots trying to persecute the Tea Party for partisan gain after all. They were just idiots.
There are two ways to fix this. The first is to get rid of the rather silly “social welfare group” designation altogether. Or we can hire enough IRS employees to look at every application individually without any screens or filters at all. I’d prefer we fix our political system so that there’s less need for any of these outside groups that are trying to hide their donor lists from public view. But until that happens, maybe we could unfurlough some federal employees and put them to the task with clear rules and plenty of help.
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