During a joint press appearance with UK Prime Minister David Cameron today, President Barack Obama claimed that he only learned that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted Tea Party groups last Friday, when the rest of America learned about it. Fielding a question from the Associated Press’ Julie Pace, who asked about Benghazi and the IRS revelations, Obama said Friday was the first time he heard about it.
No one warned the president that the Internal Revenue Service was about to offer an earth-shaking apology to groups that it had denied targeting for years?
Apparently, Barack Obama does not read the New York Times. If only Katie Couric had bothered to ask the senator what he read back in 2008…
On March 7, 2012, the Times editorialized in favor of the IRS targeting conservative groups for scrutiny. The Times cloaked its partisanship by claiming that it would like to see all of the new political action groups operating under tax law as “social welfare” organizations undergo scrutiny. But in its second paragraph, the Times notes the origins of the question:
Tea Party supporters claim they are being politically harassed with extensive I.R.S. questionnaires. But the service properly contends that it must ensure that these groups are “primarily” engaged in social welfare, not political campaigning, to merit tax exemption under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code.
Now we know that there was nothing proper about the IRS’ activity, because it was conducted unfairly and intrusively.
Today Obama apologized to Americans “if” there was any behavior that was out of bounds. There is no “if” there, as Obama surely has known for some time.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member