Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings warned that the IRS scandal might result in a "chilling effect" on the IRS
"Let me tell you what I'm really concerned about in addition to all the other things that I've said," said Cummings. "I'm concerned that all of this may have a chilling effect on employees where they say you know, when normally we would look at certain criteria fairly, not targeting anyone but say uh-oh, I'm worried because I'd better let this go."
Congressional hearings over the last two weeks have been filled with stories of misconduct due to incompetence and inexperience among certain IRS employees. Both Republicans and Democrats have leveled the accusations, and Internal Revenue officials testifying before Congress have admitted as much. At the same time, all parties have stressed that the vast majority of IRS employees are hard working, competent, and honest civil servants.
After a decade of the Democratic party dominating all levers in government the state of Illinois is a mess. Its government pension debt is far and away the largest of the 50 states and its dismal credit rating reflects it. Unlike neighboring states Illinois is hemorrhaging jobs and dancing around its myriad problems, apparently hoping they’ll go away on their own.
Spain has its problems, including an unemployment rate that could be a prelude to revolution or ruin ... or both. But the country seemed to feel it needed a fleet of warships. To include submarines. It made plans to build four of them, but there was a problem. As Roberto A. Ferdman at Quartz reports:
Democratic congressman Stephen Lynch says "there will be hell to pay" if IRS doesn't fully cooperate with Congress, and suggests he might support a "special prosecutor":
J. Russell George, the inspector general who uncovered the IRS scandal, appears to have at one time dated Michelle Obama, well before she was married to Barack Obama.
After the IRS revealed it had wrongly targeted hundreds of conservative and Tea Party groups, the agency claimed that the misconduct was limited to "low-level employees" in its Cincinnati office. Yesterday, the attorney for Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations division, told the House Oversight Committee she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights, making that explanation much less credible.
During Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D., Calif.) declared that failing to encourage people to sign up for government-mandated health insurance is downright “un-American.” Speier was referring to Congress’s refusal to fund the Obama administration’s Obamacare “outreach” efforts with taxpayer dollars (although the administration will still be running lots of taxpayer-financed pro-Obamacare propaganda ads later this summer with money that it has managed to cobble together from various sources).
Speaking at a Jewish American Heritage Month reception last night in Washington, D.C., Vice President Joe Biden requested the "teleprompter in the room to be taken down," according to the pool report.
Anthony Weiner announced overnight that he'll be running for mayor of New York City. He made the announcement by releasing this YouTube video:
Weiner, who resigned from Congress after getting caught sending lewd pictures of himself to women he had never met, uses part of the video to admit his mistakes.
“Look, I made some big mistakes, and I know I let a lot of people down,” Weiner says looking straight into the camera. “But I’ve also learned some tough lessons.”
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