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IRS Granted One Tax Exemption For a Conservative Group in Three Years

A few days ago, I wrote about the Senate Finance Committee report, which revealed that ten groups have yet to receive tax exempt approval — some waiting as long as five years. ATR had also delved into that report, and found only one conservative group actually received approval in a three year interval with Lois Lerner at the helm:

The report by the Senate Finance Committee revealed that,

“Due to the circuitous process implemented by Lerner, only one conservative political advocacy organization was granted tax-exempt status between February 2009 and May 2012. Lerner’s bias against these applicants unquestionably led to these delays, and is particularly evident when compared to the IRS’s treatment of other applications, discussed immediately below.”

and furthermore:

“The unfortunate consequence of imposing this highly rigid and unorthodox process on EO Determinations was that many Tea Party applications that could have been decided in 2010 were not. Rather, those Tea Party applications unnecessarily languished for several more years, while the IRS mismanaged its way through a series of failed initiatives designed to bring the applications to decision.”

Not all groups received such treatment:

“Although applications from the Tea Party and conservative organizations languished at the IRS, this was not the case for all groups that applied. In cases where the IRS wanted to act quickly, it did – particularly for other high-profile applications that attracted political attention.”

And don’t forget Obama’s brother was fast-tracked in 2011 for approval in 30 days!

Yet, as I noted earlier, the assessment of Lerner’s misdealings by Senate investigators was particularly weak. She was chastised for failing to “adequately manage the EO employees who processed these applications”, her handling of applications “was flawed in design and/or mismanagement”, and she showed “little emphasis” on “providing good customer service.”

Heads should roll. But they won’t, ever. The scandal is two years old now — which is ancient in the political world. People have moved on from their outrage and they are now focused mainly on 2016. The scandal is barely covered in the news anymore. It’s outrageous.