Obama Met With Anti-Tea Party IRS Union Chief The Day Before IRS Targeting Started

[boedicca]

President Empty Chair claims he found out about the IG report last week...but that doesn't address when he actually first knew about the IRS' targeting of conservative groups.

Not so coincidentally, the day before the targeting began, the head of the anti-Tea Party IRS Union met personally with Obama the day before the targeting started.

This could be the smoking gun...

(And on a side note, it is truly horrifying that the IRS has a labor union.)

According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.

The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:

Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30

In White House language, “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States.”

The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:

April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.

In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report....

The American Spectator : Obama and the IRS: The Smoking Gun?

 

[Oldguy]

Oh, please. Even Obama isn't stupid enough to hold a recorded meeting with someone from the IRS to issue instructions to do something unethical or illegal. Heck, even George Bush wasn't THAT dumb.

 

[boedicca]

You certainly are naive. The IRS Union donated heavily to Obama in 2008 and 2012. The way politics works, Obama didn't have to give specific orders. His public comments casting aspersions on the source of Tea Party donations were big nudge nudge wink winks.

 

[dilloduck]

Oh, please. Even Obama isn't stupid enough to hold a recorded meeting with someone from the IRS to issue instructions to do something unethical or illegal. Heck, even George Bush wasn't THAT dumb.

He could be but since he doesn't release any information about anything we'll never know.

 

[boedicca]

The fish rots from the head...

 

[Katzndogz]

No WONDER obama fought so hard to keep the white house visitor logs from being made public.

 

[TemplarKormac]

This is absolutely damning. We know that she visited the day before, you don't know what was being said during that visit. This story needs to find a way in the the public sight quickly.

 

[The Rabbi]

So far nothing impeachable. But we're getting closer.
If Obama authorized an illegal action with the IRS that might be very well be impeachable.

Start cuing the usual excuses:
1) They all do it.
2) BOOSH!
3) September was a long time ago.
4) At this point what difference does it make?

 

[candycorn]

You certainly are naive. The IRS Union donated heavily to Obama in 2008 and 2012. .

How much did the IRS union donate?

 

[healthmyths]

March 31, 2010.

According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.
The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way:
Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30
White House Visitor Log - US News

April 1-2 , 2010
In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report.
The NTEU is the 150,000 member union that represents IRS employees along with 30 other separate government agencies. Kelley herself is a 14-year IRS veteran agent.
The union’s PAC endorsed President Obama in both 2008 and 2012, and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles to anti-Tea Party candidates.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/05/20/obama-and-the-irs-the-smoking

 

[tjvh]

Someone needs to go to jail.

 

[healthmyths]

Someone needs to go to jail.

People that get paid by taxpayers who turn around and pay dues to a union that turns around and donates to Obama.. that is wrong!

 

[healthmyths]

End the Secrecy in Public Union Collective Bargaining The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that state and local government employees earn 43 percent more than their private sector counterparts... ...
In 11 states, secret government union collective bargaining is law, a lack of oversight that should be corrected. This lack of oversight often leads to unions employing strong-arm tactics to receive higher wages and benefits at taxpayer expense, say Nick Dranias, Bryron Schlomach and Stephen Slivinski of the Goldwater Institute. ...Even when transparency in bargaining is enacted, government unions still have access to public records of government finance and can assess what the municipality can afford. Unions around the country have a lot to lose if transparency becomes the guiding principle for collective bargaining negotiations. Dranias, Schlomach and Slivinski believe that all bargaining should take place at open meetings. All meetings should be documented verbatim and those documents should be available as part of public record. Taxpayers and budgets everywhere will benefit if transparency and accountability is required in government union collective bargaining. ...Source: Nick Dranias, Bryron Schlomach and Stephen Slivinski, "Airing Out the Smoke-filled Rooms: Bringing Transparency to Public Union Collective Bargaining," Goldwater Institute, January 17, 2013.

Unions and Democrats

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Connect the dots was always fun as a child. I bet obama hates this game now.

Doesn't look good for big O

 

[healthmyths]

President Barack Obama collected more than $110,000 from employees of the Internal Revenue Service during his 2008 and 2012 campaigns — significantly more money than any other contemporary political candidate, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Federal Election Commission filings maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics.
IRS employees back Obama, Democrats | The Center for Public Integrity

 

[Oldguy]

You certainly are naive. The IRS Union donated heavily to Obama in 2008 and 2012. .

How much did the IRS union donate?

That data is included in links marked 2010 and 2012 in the article linked in the OP. Since all their political donations were funneled through their PAC, they gave nothing to the Obama campaign because he took no money from PAC's. That's not to say some of the union members or officers didn't give individual donations, but unless they were very large, there's no record of it.

Instead, their campaign donations went to Congressional candidates, the huge majority of which were Democrats. I suppose by the OP's reasoning, any Democrat is by default "anti-Tea Party," but that's not necessarily the case. What IS necessarily the case is that it should come as no surprise that a union would not donate to the party which just got through beating union employees out of their earned pensions in Wisconsin and other states and which has engaged in high-profile attacks on union benefits and union's in general.

There's smoke involved in this story, but it's not coming from the proverbial gun. It's being blown up our ass.

 

[candycorn]

So let me get this straight...

You guys think that the President, wanting to make a request for someone to do something clearly illegal, invited that person to the White House to meet with him personally so he could make the request, in person. And have the presence of this person documented via the WHVL.

The IRS scandal is a scandal, the President is responsible for what happens on his watch. But you guys are getting cartoonish--shit; you guys ARE cartoonish in your assumptions.

 

[007]

Oh, please. Even Obama isn't stupid enough to hold a recorded meeting with someone from the IRS to issue instructions to do something unethical or illegal. Heck, even George Bush wasn't THAT dumb.

He could be but since he doesn't release any information about anything we'll never know.

 

[candycorn]

You certainly are naive. The IRS Union donated heavily to Obama in 2008 and 2012. .

How much did the IRS union donate?

That data is included in links marked 2010 and 2012 in the article linked in the OP. Since all their political donations were funneled through their PAC, they gave nothing to the Obama campaign because he took no money from PAC's. That's not to say some of the union members or officers didn't give individual donations, but unless they were very large, there's no record of it.

Instead, their campaign donations went to Congressional candidates, the huge majority of which were Democrats. I suppose by the OP's reasoning, any Democrat is by default "anti-Tea Party," but that's not necessarily the case. What IS necessarily the case is that it should come as no surprise that a union would not donate to the party which just got through beating union employees out of their earned pensions in Wisconsin and other states and which has engaged in high-profile attacks on union benefits and union's in general.

There's smoke involved in this story, but it's not coming from the proverbial gun. It's being blown up our ass.

Ahh...

I saw the amount on another thread. Doesn't strike me as absurdly high amont of money. Also the visit was done as part of something called Workplace Flexibility:

http://workplaceflexibility2010.org...ace Solutions for Low-Wage Hourly Workers.pdf

Not exactly a clandestine meeting...

It's fun watching the over-reach.

 

[healthmyths]

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which maintains an online database of political contributions, individuals listing their employer as “IRS” or “Internal Revenue Service” donated a total of $48,827 to Obama in 2012 and gave just $20,361 to Romney. That disparity is mild compared with that of 2008, when IRS employees donated $59,959 to Obama, and just $1,950 to his challenger John McCain.

Slightly over 100 IRS employees donated to Obama in 2012, while only 25 contributed to Romney, according to the database, and most contributed less than $1,000. At least one of the IRS employees who donated to Obama in 2012 — Kim Kitchens — appears to have worked in the agency’s Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements office in Cincinnati, Ohio, as of October 2012, according to IRS documents.

IRS Employees Disproportionately Donate to Obama | National Review Online