Upon new revelations of illegal actions on the part of former IRS official Lois “I plead the Fifth Amendment” Learner,” IRS Congressional overseer Peter Roskam responds. It is a statement that is either the understatement of the year or grotesquely indifferent to the seriousness of the matter. It reminded us of one of the classic Cole Porter tunes, Miss Otis Regrets
From Elianna Johnso writing at National Review:
New Documents Suggest IRS’s Lerner Likely Broke the Law
Recently obtained documents raise new questions about Lois Lerner’s role in sending confidential tax returns to the Justice Department.
It is likely the largest unauthorized disclosure of tax-return information in history: the transfer of some 1.25 million pages of confidential tax returns from the IRS to the Department of Justice in October of 2010. And it was almost certainly illegal.
The documents, which consisted chiefly of non-profit tax returns, were transferred to the DOJ’s criminal division from the IRS at the request of Lois Lerner, who wanted to get the information to the DOJ in advance of a meeting where she and several of the attorneys in the public integrity section of the department’s criminal division discussed their concerns about the increasing political activity of non-profit groups.
Mr. Roskam Regrets*
“It is disappointing to be learning significant details in 2016 about how poorly taxpayers were treated in 2010,” says Peter Roskam, the oversight chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over issues related to taxpayer privacy. Roskam, an Illinois Republican, spearheaded the passage of legislation through the House earlier this month that would prevent the IRS from requiring tax-exempt organizations to submit any information about their contributors.”
Yes, Congressman Roskam finds it “disappointing” that one of President Obama’s major executive branch departments would do something maliciously underhanded and almost certainly illegal.
Yes, we, too, find it “disappointing”. But then we’ve experienced a lot of “disappointment” since 2008.
We found ourselves quite “disappointed” that our president chose to lead this great nation “from his behind” (or something like that). We’ve been really “disappointed” that we have had to endure the malevolent antics of a president who has systematically divided this country, with the aid and approval of the nation’s press, and set race relations back a hundred years; has effectively shredded major parts of the Constitution; reduced America to a laughing stock to our rivals and enemies and a completely unreliable partner to our allies; taken every action he and his minions can think of to cripple our national security and our military’s future ability to respond to global threats; illegally opened our borders and virtually abdicated our national sovereignty; driven the nation into unsustainable and irreversible debt.
Yes, Congressman Roskam. It IS “disappointing”, and your political party should “regret” its abject inability to function as a ‘loyal opposition’ and an institution to protect the national interest. DLH
*Cole Porter – Miss Otis Regrets Lyrics
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today, madam
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today
She is sorry to be delayed
But last evening down in Lover’s Lane
She strayed, madam
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today
When she woke up and found
That her dream of love was gone, madam
She ran to the man who had led her so far astray
And from under her velvet gown
She drew a gun and shot her love down, madam
Miss Otis regrets, she’s unable to lunch today
When the mob came and got her
And dragged her from the jail, madam
They strung her upon the old willow across the way
And the moment before she died
She lifted up her lovely head and cried, madam
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today
