Mikel Weisser on the Left Coast of AZ: 7 Questions for the GOP IRS Witchhunters

Dateline- PRESCOTT: On July 1, Reps. Paul Gosar, David Sweikert & Matt Salmon were scheduled to hold a field hearing in Prescott, Arizona on the supposed IRS-Tea Party controversy. However, just the night before, the nearby tragic Yarnell Fire on Sunday June 30 shocked the community, when 19 of Prescott’s finest firefighters, the Granite Mountain Hotshot Team, perished. Our hearts go out to the families suffering in this tragedy and the many people who lost homes in Yarnell (conflicting reports set the number between 150-200 homes destroyed). Later today I will be attending the memorial service that is being held instead of Gosar’s field hearing.

In respect for that event and the many who are suffering, I will not be pressing Gosar & company about the purpose of the original field hearing at the memorial service. But, for our readers here in Prescott and throughout the district, and particularly for the many people who have helped me prepare to attend this hearing to challenge the GOP IRS BS (special thx to Gary Lamaster & Michael Costintino from the Cottonwood radio show, “Democratic Perspective” and to Kathy Svendsen, of Prescott, & Eugenio Cifelli of Mohave Valley for research assistance),here is the list of questions, I was going to ask Gosar, et al, about the real tragedy of the IRS targeting political organizations: the GOP’s false exploitation of it:

1. Are you aware the filters used to select which 501c4 organizations to investigate included terms such as “Democrat, Progressive & Blue”? Why shouldn’t it have included terms such as “Republican, Conservative & Tea Party”?

2. A local Democratic association, the Democrats of the Verde Valley in Cottonwood, was one of the political groups investigated. How does that square w the framing the GOP tries to create that this was a Tea Party persecution?

3. There are over 1.5 million non-profit organizations the IRS is supposed to regulate. They are currently forced to do this after years of a GOP dominated Congress forcing budget cuts and thus staffing cuts. What other methods would you propose, besides filters searching for political content in organizations applications, to ferret out cases where political organizations were exploiting their 501c4 status? That sort of exploitation does matter doesn’t it?

4. In the 2012 campaign cycle, Tea Party groups claiming to be social service organizations poured over $300,000,000 into GOP campaigns. Why shouldn’t they be investigated?

5. If this case is such a strong case of political manipulation of government agencies for political purposes, then why is Darrel Issa cherry picking the testimony he is releasing and excluding all the contradictory info that refutes his claims of impropriety? If this is this really about impropriety, then why is Issa himself acting inappropriately?

6. No conservative groups have had their applications rejected. One liberal group has. Shouldn’t we Democrats be complaining about the GOP using undue influence?

7. What is the difference between the whistleblower at the IRS and Edward Snowden?

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