JPRD (16 May, 2013)
Lois Lerner, head of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division, and the person who first disclosed improper IRS practices, seems to be at the heart of this IRS scandal. She was appointed to her position in 2006, during the Bush administration. She's been described by some as "apolitical" and a "rule follower". She disclosed IRS abuses in response to a question during an ABA meeting. In her answer she indicated that abuses had occured between 2010-2012, implying that it was a "rogue" operation that had stopped in 2012.
The year in which Ms. Lerner claimed the abuses began, 2010, is significant. That's the year in which the US Supreme Court decision known as "Citizens United" occurred. That decision allowed for 401(c)(3) (c)(4) (tax-exempt, social-welfare groups) to raise and donate as much money as they like to political campaigns, if the organization's main focus remains "social welfare", and not politics.
President Obama criticized the ruling in "Citizens United" while members of the Supreme Court sat before him as he delivered his State-of-the-Union speech. In stating that the year 2010 was the year in which IRS abuses began, Ms. Lerner may have been establishing an "excuse" for those abuses. We should begin to hear Democrats claim that a few IRS rouges began auditing conservative groups because of the increased allowances inherent in the "Citizens United" ruling. If so, that claim will be patently FALSE!
IRS abuses began within weeks after President Obama's election in 2008, prior to him even taking office. Bill Donahue, President and CEO of The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, announced today that the '"Catholic League" received a letter from IRS lawyers on 24 November, 2008, advising them that they'd be investigated by the IRS. The catalyst of that investigation????... a complaint sent to the IRS by "Catholics United", a group that's funded indirectly through "Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good"; i.e, George Soros! Lois Lerner was one of the two IRS officials to whom the Soros-driven complaint was sent.
The IRS eventually backed-off of Bill Donahue's group, saying that Donahue had expressed political opinions "unintentionally". The point was made, however, that any expression of conservative values would pay the price of increased IRS scrutiny and abuse. These IRS crimes didn't begin in 2010 with the actions of a few rogues. It began with Obama's election, and in my opinion, Lois Lerner was among the first involved in it!