A press release from Congressman Peter Roskam:
ICYMI: Roskam: IRS Targeting is Insidious and Poisonous
WASHINGTON, DC–This week, Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam (R-IL) spoke on the House floor in support of Congressman Jim Renacci’s (R-OH) Prevent Targeting at the IRS Act, which ensures that any IRS employee found guilty of targeting Americans for their political beliefs is fired immediately.
The bill passed unanimously along with several other measures to rein in IRS abuse.
Peter Roskam in Crystal Lake.
“This targeting is poisonous.
“This targeting is without a defender.
“There is nobody who’s getting up on this floor today, no voice is saying, ‘Oh yeah let them do it, its fine. It’ll all settle out. Not the Ranking Member—he’s not defending this. There was nobody, not the Chairman—he’s not defending this.
“Everybody in this House should all be saying that we all have the right to come in and make our arguments and try and persuade the public to vote for us.
“And it should never be a bureaucrat who manipulates and uses power to an end, and abuses somebody who by good faith is coming into this process.
“This is an incredibly important piece of legislation and I urge its passage.”
Click on the image below to watch the full video:
“I want to tell you a story. I want to take you back to 1996.
“A friend of mine in Illinois, my former law partner, Al Salvi, was running for the United States Senate.
“He loaned himself some money to his campaign.
“The Federal Election Commission—different agency than we’re talking about—but stick with me. This is like a Seinfeld episode—it’s all going to come together at the end.
“The Federal Election Commission said, ‘You did that the wrong way. You violated federal election law.’
“They placed him under investigation. World War II headlines in the Chicago papers. He goes on and he loses the election for the United States Senate.
“Now, political scientists can debate whether he would have won or whether he would have lost.
“But let’s face it: being under investigation by the Federal Election Commission generally does not help you in a political campaign.
“At the end of that campaign, the Federal Election Commission came and they made a very large settlement demand—I don’t remember off the top of my head how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they were demanding from him.
“But he said, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong and I’m not going to pay you any money.’
“Federal Election Commission said, ‘That’s fine. We’re going to sue you,’ which they did.
“They filed a lawsuit in federal court.
“The federal judge reads the pleadings [and] dismisses the case against the Federal Election Commission—finds in favor of Al Salvi.
“You would think that this drama all ended there.
“No, no, no.
“No, the Federal Election Commission came back.
“They said, ‘Well, we know you won, but we’re still going to make a settlement demand of you. We’re going to lower the amount, but we’re still going to make a demand. Because if you don’t pay us we’re going to appeal the judge’s ruling.’
Al Salvi
“Al Salvi’s a pretty sophisticated lawyer and he talked to the lawyer at the other end of the line and said to that person, ‘Give me the person, and let me talk to the person who had authority on this case. Because you don’t understand—I won, you lost, I’m not going to pay any money.
“‘Let me talk to the person with authority on the case at the Federal Election Commission.’
“That person got on the phone with Al Salvi and said this, ‘If you pledge never to run for office again, we’ll drop this case.’
“Al Salvi said, ‘Put that in writing.’
“The person said, ‘We don’t put that in writing and we never lose.’
“That person was Lois Lerner.
“Now, you take that disposition.
“You take that attitude.
“You take that long arm of a bureaucrat and reach into the sanctity of the ballot booth. And you’ve got a real problem.
“And you up the wattage on that, and you move her over, and you give her the type of authority not that the Federal Election Commission has, but the Internal Revenue Service.
“To grab somebody by the throat and do whatever they want with them with the possibility of imprisoning them.
“That is a problem.
“And that’s a problem that Representative Renacci is trying to make go away.
“We had a hearing in the last Congress. And I hear a lot of testimony—we all hear a lot of testimony. But this testimony was inspirational to me. Because these were people that came in before our Committee. Committee members you’ll remember this.
“They told us how they had been targeted.
“But you know what was the most incredible thing?
“They kept faith with their country when it didn’t look like their country had not kept faith with them.
“And they said, ‘This isn’t America. My America doesn’t target me. My America doesn’t shun me out of the public square.’
“But you know the one that got the most attention in my mind was the pro-life group in Iowa, who was asked by the Internal Revenue Service, ‘Tell us about your organization. Tell us about your activity.’
“And they gave a list of activities and one of the activities they said was ‘We have prayer meetings.’
“And the IRS said, in writing, ‘Under penalty of perjury, tell us about your prayer meetings.’
“The hair on the back of my neck is tingling at this moment as I am describing this to you because it is so scandalous.”
“So can you imagine that?
“You’re a nice little group minding your own business in Iowa with a point of view and the Internal Revenue Service starts roughing you up.
“This targeting is insidious.
“This targeting is poisonous.
“This targeting is without a defender.
“There is nobody who’s getting up on this floor today, no voice is saying, ‘Oh yeah let them do it, its fine. It’ll all settle out. Not the Ranking Member—he’s not defending this. There was nobody, not the Chairman—he’s not defending this.
“Everybody in this House should all be saying that we all have the right to come in and make our arguments and try and persuade the public to vote for us.
“And it should never be a bureaucrat who manipulates and uses power to an end, and abuses somebody who by good faith is coming into this process.
“This is an incredibly important piece of legislation and I urge its passage.”
= = = = =
Al Salvi was running against Dick Durbin in the 1996 election discussed above.
Only legitimate 5013c groups and others should take their deductions otherwise other taxpayers must make up the difference.
If Republicans want no businesses, schools, churches, 501 3 c groups etc to pay taxes who will.
then the United States of America will cease to exist and you would be unemployed.
Unfortunately the ‘intimidation’ of candidates and legal residents of our country is not restricted to activities by the federal government.
At the last County Board meeting, an organized attempt by unions to intimidate the County Board was put on full display!
HR709 – Prevent Targeting at the IRS Act – 114th Congress (2015-2016).
April 15, 2015 – Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.
April 16, 2015 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
http://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/709
This is VERY scary.
Government has gotten far too big and it has Lois Lehrner types in the Legal and Law Enforcement sectors who intimidate and use every measure to damage conservative Republicans.
That’s how you hold power when you know the intellectual argument is not on your side.
Lois Lehrner and her type of political hacks are the lowest scum in politics.
I thinks she knows it, too.
The only way the Lois Lerner types, who use their governmental position and power to attempt to intimidate others to accept their brand of insanity, survive is The People aren’t aware and are too cowardly to stand up for their rights.
Whether it’s the local law enforcement who fail to understand the distinction between “occupying military” and “peace officer” or the administration types who believe because they are part of some back room functionary position they have the right to wander on your property and determine how a free people live their lives on private land this is a problem of widespread cowardice.
If a police officer loses the thread and openly threatens your life, liberty or property for no other reason than he thinks his shirt is more special than yours it is incumbent upon those capable to tell them they have no rights except those afforded them under the Protect Life, Liberty and Property mandate.
If a coward in a suit in some back room of a governmental administrative unit tries to tell a man he cannot stand up for his beliefs and run for public office they should be stockaded in the public square to share with them the limits of their power.
WE are The People.
It is only through our cowardice any of these fools thinks they may do anything they do.
It will only be through our collective courage we will regain what is rightfully ours…
The freedom to live peacefully in a safe environment without intrusive government and her minions coming to collect our lives or property for themselves and their enrichment.
Well said, Priest.
Can’t really add much to Priest.
He sums it up quite well.
Good to know Roaskam is targeting the IRS and exposing their shenanigans.
They have had way too much power for too long.
This is some serious and unacceptable behavior.
Jeff, but it has been YOUR police department that has been most guilty of which the offenses “Priest” speaks.
Linder and Lowery (along with Nygren) have been the most thuggish of loser cops in the past 10 years in the county.
There’s a tad bit of political skepticism here