Thread: Millions in bonuses for the IRS

GOPUSA.com
By Washington Times (DC) February 4, 2014 12:25 pm

"It's hard to think of a group of people less deserving of bonuses than IRS employees. Frankly, this is outrageous," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

Millions in bonuses for the IRS

Citing the need to boost employee morale, the Internal Revenue Service's new commissioner said Monday that he will pay out millions of dollars in bonuses to agency employees, reversing a decision his predecessor made to save money amid the sequester budget cuts and other belt-tightening last year.

The agency remains under fire for targeting tea party groups, but Commissioner John Koskinen said the bonuses are needed to retain and attract good employees in a time of cutbacks.

"This is money best spent on our existing employees," he said in an email to agency employees. "The performance award payouts are in recognition of that great work done in very trying circumstances. I firmly believe that this investment in our employees will directly benefit taxpayers and the tax system."

The move didn't sit well with congressional critics who have been stupefied by the agency's targeting of tea party groups and, more recently, proposed rules to crack down on an even broader class of political activities by tax-exempt groups.

"It's hard to think of a group of people less deserving of bonuses than IRS employees. Frankly, this is outrageous," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

He said while "not every IRS worker" was involved in the tea party targeting, it sends a "wrong signal" to reward the agency.

Mr. Koskinen is slated to appear on Capitol Hill for an oversight hearing Wednesday.

His predecessor, acting Commissioner Danny Werfel, whom Mr. Obama tapped to clean up the agency after the tea party-targeting came to light, canceled the bonuses last year. He said the money was used to limit furloughs to just three days, instead of the five that would have been necessary under the budget sequesters.

It's not clear where IRS officials found the money to pay for the bonuses, given last year's tight budget.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents many IRS workers, argued that canceling the bonuses was illegal under the union's collective-bargaining agreement. The union took the agency to court.

To head off the lawsuit, Mr. Koskinen negotiated the bonuses with NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley.

Ms. Kelley said the lower bonuses were better than waiting out a court case where the outcome could be no payouts at all.

"The awards are a relatively small amount of money, but they go a long way toward acknowledging the hard work of employees who exceed their performance expectations for the year," she said.

The bonuses will amount to about 1 percent of pay -- less than the 1.75 percent rate of previous bonuses.

Agency officials said they will pay $43.4 million to employees represented by labor unions and $19.1 million to other employees, for a total of $62.5 million in bonuses for 2013.

They said the amount is lower than the $89.1 million paid out in 2012.

"Since he took office in December, Commissioner Koskinen has heard repeatedly from employees across the nation about the importance of the performance awards. The decision to cancel them last year was not a popular one, and significantly affected employee morale," said spokeswoman Michelle Ethridge. "Pay-for-performance is also a significant factor in encouraging quality and efficient work across the IRS."

An internal audit last year found that IRS employees deliberately slow-walked applications for tax-exempt status from tea party and conservative groups, and repeatedly asked intrusive questions about those groups' activities.

The FBI and Justice Department are still looking into whether criminal activity occurred at the agency -- though President Obama said this weekend in an interview with Fox News that he doesn't think there was any criminal wrongdoing.

"There were some bone-headed decisions," the president told Bill O'Reilly in a pre-Super Bowl interview Sunday, but he said the agency's actions did not involve "even a smidgen of corruption."

Those comments appeared to contradict the White House's long-standing policy of not commenting on matters still under criminal investigation. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. last week said criminal charges are possible.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that Mr. Obama is basing his opinion not on any inside information about that investigation, but on public reports from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which revealed the targeting in May.




http://www.gopusa.com/news/2014/02/0.../?subscriber=1

Mathew Staver, Chairman
Liberty Counsel

IRS off-the-record plans to suppress conservative organizations have
been exposed. A recent release from the House Ways and Means Committee
proves what we've been saying all along. Barack Obama's overtly
politicized IRS intends to silence you, me, and other conservative
voices.

Liberty Counsel will stand in defense of American patriots as
represented by Liberty Counsel Action, Freedom Federation, and other
conservative 501(c)(4) organizations by challenging the proposed IRS
regulations in court the moment they are enacted!

President Obama told Bill O'Reilly and the nation on Super Bowl Sunday
that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" in the IRS scandal
that took place during the 2012 election cycle. Now, we have learned
that there isn't a "smidgen of truth" in the President's smug
declaration!

Congressman Charles Boustany (R-LA), Chairman of the House Ways and
Means Oversight Subcommittee, called the President's retort to O'Reilly
"ill informed." The Congressman further said.

"This committee has actually investigated the matter, and found
otherwise. The President's staff is either ill informed or they are
misleading him."

In fact, Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI), Chairman of the House Ways and
Means Committee, has a "smoking gun" that shows the IRS intended to
silence conservative groups all along.

According to a revealing report from The Daily Caller.

"The Obama administration's Treasury Department and former IRS official
Lois Lerner conspired to draft new 501(c)(4) regulations to restrict
the activity of conservative groups in a way that would not be
disclosed publicly, according to the House Committee on Ways and Means."

The report reveals that the secret drafting began in 2012, while the
IRS "targeting" was at the peak of its suppression of Barack Obama's
political adversaries.

In a portion of the evidence released by the House committee, as
reported by the Wall Street Journal, "an e-mail cites a blog post about
the political activity of tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups and reads:

'Don't know who in your organizations is keeping tabs on c4s, but since
we mentioned potentially addressing them (off -plan) in 2013, I've got
my radar up and this seemed interesting.'"

Treasury official Ruth Madrigal wrote that text in 2012 to Lois Lerner
and others at the IRS.

++Applying heat to the new IRS Director.

Yesterday, Congressman Camp took new IRS Director John Koskinen to task
over the proposed regulations.

"If Treasury and the IRS fabricated the rationale for a rule change it
would tend to raise questions about the integrity of the rule-making
process.

I want to be perfectly clear - this committee will fight any and all
efforts to restrict the rights of groups to organize, speak out, and
educate the public, just as unions are allowed to do so. I believe the
IRS has a long way to go in restoring its credibility. But, you can
take a first step by complying with this committee's request and
stopping all action against 501(c)(4) groups until the appropriate
investigations are completed."

Under the Obama administration, the IRS has been politicized to an
alarming degree. It has practically become an arm of the Obama campaign
team!

We must aggressively confront the tyranny, the culture of
corruption, the massive government overreach, and the condescending
arrogance that has permeated the ranks of our IRS "public servants"
under Barack Obama.

The actions of the IRS are egregious violations of the social contract
between the people of the United States and their elected leaders!

Here is what I'm asking you to do today... I need your help to build a
"war chest" necessary to fight an imminent legal battle against the
IRS, the Obama administration, and the Justice Department.

I am dedicating the full resources of Liberty Counsel's legal team to
defend Liberty Counsel Action and a host of other pro-family and
conservative 501 (c)(4) groups against this scandalous attack.

++The emperor's subjects know just what he wants!

There can be little doubt that the offending IRS bureaucrats have taken
their cues from President Obama or his senior staff. It's even very
possible (some would say likely) that they have been acting upon the
President's direct orders.

The acting IRS chief at the time that agency was targeting conservative
groups, Douglas Shulman, was the most frequent visitor to the White
House during the period - by far.

How could President Obama NOT know about the targeting and the
Inspector General's investigation, having met with Shulman at least 157
times during the height of the IRS targeting scandal?

Shulman was in the President's presence at least once weekly during his
tenure and visited President Obama substantially more than any cabinet
member, including those considered to be the President's closest
confidants!

The IRS blatantly trampled our First Amendment rights in order to
silence the voices of those who would be most likely to oppose Barack
Obama and his agenda!

This ongoing scandal is about flagrant abuse of power and a government
agency compliantly doing the political will of a highly partisan,
divisive presidential administration.

We must never back down to leftist bullies who seek to destroy our
system of government and undermine our rights as Americans.

That's why Liberty Counsel will challenge this abuse by every legal
means possible!

http://www.libertyaction.org/1389/offer.asp

IRS is Issuing $62M in Employee Bonuses - agency that attacks the regimes enemies

Liberty Counsel is mobilizing legal resources to stop the outrageous proposed IRS regulations designed to silence conservative organizations!

President Obama is using the IRS to destroy or render powerless his political adversaries. Newly proposed IRS guidelines subvert a Supreme Court ruling and impose even more restrictions on organizations that dare oppose Barack Obama's leftist agenda.

These new regulations will potentially destroy the work of Liberty Counsel Action, Freedom Federation, and the more than 30 organizations that comprise the latter group's membership. In fact, all 501(c)(4) organizations that the Obama administration considers to be adverse to his agenda are at risk.

The President fully intends to impact the outcome
of the 2014 elections through the IRS!

Liberty Counsel is crafting a lawsuit on behalf of Liberty Counsel Action, Freedom Federation, and other potential plaintiffs, to stop this egregious abuse of power by the IRS.

They have effectively confirmed what thoughtful Americans feared: Under the Obama administration, they have amassed unprecedented power and unleashed the politically driven will to provoke and abuse organizations whose agendas run counter to leftist ideologies.


Our Call to Action

Today, I am dedicating the full resources of Liberty Counsel's legal team to defend Liberty Counsel Action and a host of other pro-family and conservative groups against this outrageous attack.

We are expecting to directly battle the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the IRS in court. We will meet every assault by Team Obama with every legal resource available!

We must act to build a war chest that will enable our litigation team to take immediate legal action against the IRS when they attempt to implement these new overreaching regulations.



Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel