Tamara Holder offers GOP fresh catnip

http://twitter.com/#!/tamaraholder/status/183136007162564609

The Wall Street Journal piece she’s referencing is here:

The Internal Revenue Service expanded its audits of Americans earning more than $500,000 last year, with a stark increase for those making more than $1 million.

The agency, in an annual report released Thursday, said it performed audits in the year ended Sept. 30 on 5.4% of the tax returns of Americans who made between $500,000 and $1 million in 2010. That was up from 3.4% of this group who were audited the previous year.

The jump was even bigger for those making between $1 million and $5 million, with 12% of this group audited last year, up from 6.7% the previous year. For those making between $5 million and $10 million, 21% were audited in 2011, compared with just 12% last year.

The most heavily audited group, as a percentage of filers, were Americans who reported making more than $10 million, with 30% of this group audited last year, up from 18% of these filers the year before.

The IRS said it audited just 1.1% of all individual tax returns last year and 1.5% of corporate tax returns. The chances of being audited were much higher for those making more money.

Are we outraged or surprised? Neither. The federal government needs money, and it’s looking, naturally, where there’s the most money to be found.

What we are scandalized by, though, is the Obama administration’s insistence that making the wealthy ‘pay their fair share’ is going to make a significant dent in the national debt. We’re also scandalized by the IRS targeting TEA Party organizations while ignoring the violations of 501 (c)(3) status by progressive organizations like Media Matters completely untouched.

From WyBlog:

The Department of Homeland Security “struggled” to avoid monitoring any #Occupy groups, for fear they might tread on someone’s civil rights.

Internal Documents Show the Department of Homeland Security Tried Pretty Hard Not to Monitor Occupy Wall Street

The Department of Homeland Security struggled to avoid monitoring or suppressing the Occupy Wall Street movement last year, despite being bombarded with requests from various federal agencies for intelligence on the protests, according to documents released via the Freedom of Information Act.

The documents show that officials in DHS’s offices of Intelligence Analysis and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties were keenly aware of the legal and constitutional issues raised by federal agencies monitoring political protesters, and sought to tamp down the appetite for intelligence on the Occupy protesters from their colleagues in DHS and other federal agencies that rely on DHS bulletins and intelligence.

Treat the Occupods with kid gloves! But when it comes to the Tea Party, DHS felt no such compunction. Nosirree, if you’re talking about dangerous right-wing extremists, DHS puts the Tea Party at the top of their list.

The IRS denies the accusation. CBS:

The head of the Internal Revenue Service has told Congress his agency isn’t denying tax-exempt status to tea party groups because of their political views.

Several of the conservative groups have accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

Read the whole things.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2012/03/23/tamara-holder-offers-gop-fresh-catnip/