AP: Ouster Of IRS Official Isn't Ending Investigations -- McConnell: It’s Bigger Than Just The IRS

American People Seeing "Remarkable Arrogance" from Obama Administration A lot of questions are being raised as a result of these revelations and, as Speaker Boehner said at a press conference today, "This House will stop at nothing to get to the American people the answers and the accountability that they expect."

Today in Washington, D.C., May 16, 2013
The Senate  and began consideration of the nomination of Ernest J. Moniz, of Massachusetts, to be Secretary of Energy. At 2 PM, the Senate is scheduled to vote on confirmation of the Moniz nomination.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has indicated he plans to bring S. 954, the farm bill, to the floor on Monday. Yesterday, the Senate voted 83-14 to pass S. 601, the Water Resources Development Act of 2013. Prior to passage, senators voted to agree to an amendment from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and reject two amendments from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK).  Also yesterday the Senate voted 91-7 to confirm Marilyn Tavenner as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and 56-41 to confirm William H. Orrick, III as U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California.

The House today will vote again on the repeal of Obamacare.  The House Oversight Committee announced Wednesday that it would hold a hearing May 22, featuring Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversees tax exempt organizations, and Shulman, the former commissioner. The Senate Finance Committee announced a hearing for next Tuesday.

Yesterday the House passed by voice vote H.R. 573 - To amend Public Law 93-435 with respect to the Northern Mariana Islands, providing parity with Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. The House approved (415-1) H.R. 767 "To amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to modify the Pilot Project offices of the Federal Permit Streamlining Pilot Project," H.R. 701 (416-6) "To amend a provision of the Securities Act of 1933 directing the Securities and Exchange Commission to add a particular class of securities to those exempted under such Act to provide a deadline for such action," and H.R. 384 (420-3) "To establish the position of Special Assistant for Veterans Affairs in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and for other purposes."

The AP writes today, “Don't look for the outcry over the Internal Revenue Service's improper targeting of tea party groups to subside with the ouster of the agency's acting commissioner. Three congressional committees are investigating and the FBI is looking into potential civil rights violations at the IRS, Attorney General Eric Holder said. Other potential crimes include making false statements to authorities and violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities, Holder said. President Barack Obama said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew had asked for and accepted Steven T. Miller's resignation.”

Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Last night, the President took an important symbolic step in accepting the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Miller. I had called for this resignation on Monday, when we learned that Mr. Miller signed his name to one if not more letters that we know now couldn't have possibly been truthful. But let’s be clear: this symbolic step was just that, symbolic. What Americans want right now are answers about what happened at the IRS, why it wasn’t disclosed earlier, who was ultimately accountable for this behavior — and assurances that this kind of thing isn’t still going on at the IRS or anywhere else in the federal government because the allegations of ideological targeting only continue to multiply.”

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Leader McConnell last night who explained how the IRS abuses are part of a larger pattern: “I’ve been talking about this since June of 2012. There were Tea Party groups in my state complaining about this back then. But you know, it’s bigger than just the IRS, Hugh. Let’s just go back to the Obamacare debate for a moment. Secretary Sebelius, the head of HHS, sent out a directive to health insurance companies saying they couldn’t tell their policy holders how they felt about Obamacare. And now, she’s shaking them down for money to spend on ads trying to convince the American people they ought to like Obamacare. We’ve had similar moves over at the Securities And Exchange Commission by Obama appointees, the Federal Communications Commission by Obama appointees. And now, they’ve messed with the one agency everybody in America really knows about, and that’s the IRS. They’re the one agency with the power to shut us down. And look, this is a huge, huge scandal. You know, we don’t know who knew what and when, we don’t know how high it goes up.”

And there are more questions the IRS needs to answer.   This morning, Leader McConnell said, “Last May, Senator Hatch — the top Republican on the Finance Committee — sent a letter to the IRS inquiring about reports that someone at the IRS had leaked confidential donor information from [the National Organization for Marriage] to an advocacy group whose political goals were in direct conflict with its own. NOM has since released documents suggesting that this information came from one source — from within the IRS itself. All this took place, by the way, in the middle of a national political campaign. Significantly, one of the NOM donors whose name was leaked was none other than Mitt Romney. What a coincidence. And what about the group it was leaked to? Well, it was headed by a guy who was named a co-chair of the Obama campaign, and who published the confidential donor information on the website of the organization he ran – an organization opposed to the goals of NOM. . . . . No one should be intimidated by the government into shutting up as part of our political process. And that’s why the Republican members of the Finance Committee are sending a letter today to Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration requesting investigation into this very issue. Because, without this sort of inquiry, we may never have confirmed the inappropriate harassment of conservative groups that was going on at the IRS for two years. Apparently, this is the only way to get this Administration to take responsibility for its actions.”

On another important angle, Newsmax noted that the current scandal facing the Internal Revenue Service proves that the agency cannot be trusted to implement Obamacare.

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