Hope and change: Obama's IRS singles out conservative groups for audits

What has hope and change brought us?

Obama punishing his enemies.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The Internal Revenue Service improperly singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny of their applications for nonprofit status, a top agency official said Friday, setting off calls for investigations into an organization already under fire for its handling of secret political spending by nonprofits.

Employees at the agency's Cincinnati nonprofits office, while screening a flood of applications from so-called social welfare groups last year, set aside about 75 containing the words "tea party" and "patriot" for more detailed review, said Lois Lerner, IRS director of exempt organizations. The groups also were asked to supply additional information that the IRS does not usually ask for, such as donor lists.

"That's absolutely inappropriate and not the way we should do things," Lerner said in a conference call with reporters. She described the actions as improper shortcuts taken by lower-level employees. A White House spokesman said the moves should be investigated and "action taken" if Lerner's report is confirmed.

Republicans in Congress vowed aggressive investigations, saying the admission confirmed their suspicions that the IRS under President Obama was unfairly targeting nonprofits aligned with conservatives.

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