IRS Official Who Ran the Office that Targeted Conservatives Now Runs the Obamacare Office

redit: numberstumper / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

The same official who oversaw the IRS tax-exempt office now under fire for targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny recently took charge of the revenue agency's Obamacare division, according to ABC News.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS' Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

At this point, we still don't know what direct involvement, if any, Ingram had regarding the targeting that took place. She isn't named in the Inspector General's report at all.

But that report also concludes that the targeting was a result of significant administrative and organizational incompetence. If the IG report is correct, then this was a failure of management. And while that failure was underway, Ingram was at the top. 

More on the connections between the IRS and Obamacare here. 

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

Incompetent or unethical. Either way, has to go. Along with the penaltax, while we're at it.

[Auric Demonocles]

Don't worry, with this guy in charge it will be back to full on penalty.

[Pro Libertate]

This government grows tiresome.

[Virginian]

Government: Where incompetence is rewarded, not punished.

[Ska]

"How did your department do in comparison to budget?"

"We exceeded budgeted expenses by $5 million."

"Then we'll just have to increase your department's budget by $5 million next year."

Yay incentives!

[The Late P Brooks]

I turned on my teevee a while ago, to be greeted by the riveting spectacle of Charlie Rangel grilling some guy about the recently revealed IRS shenanigans. By "grilling" I mean propounding in long, rambling, obtusely structured sentences with no identifiable subjects, object, verbs, or points.

Is there some secret Congressional training facility where these arrogant idiots go to learn this stuff, or are they truly a magnificent intergalactic lizard species struggling to come to grips with our puny primitive language?

[Monkey's Uncle]

Yes.

[John Galt]

"teevee"

I've always wondered what the acronym TV stood for.

[db]

Tight Vagina, duh.

[John Galt]

Charles Rangel. The man is like a turd that even after dozens of flushes just keeps floating around the bowl.

[John Galt]

Comic book MILF.

[The Late P Brooks]

If the IG report is correct, then this was a failure of management. And while that failure was underway, Ingram was at the top.

What better way to motivate the cannon fodder than to promote the general?

[tarran]

Remember when Yosarian dropped his bombs in the Med on purpose, and they gave him a medal for it?

[John Galt]

Read the book, and the MAD magazine parody of the movie, but never did watch the movie. Was it worth watching?

[tarran]

The movie is a pale ghost of the book. The problem is that there is no way to pack that book into a movie. Nor could you make a miniseries out of it either.

But the acting was pretty good, and the script writers did what they could with the material. So, yeah, it's worth watching.

[John]

Yeah. What made the book great was the endless number of clever observations. All of that was lost in movie.

[John Galt]

It must be an almost impossible task to do a book justice on the screen.

[John]

Yes. It has been done a couple of times. But it is rare. I think The Right Stuff did a very good book justice. But if there are more than three or four more examples of that, I would be surprised.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Friday Night Lights is better than Bissinger's left-wing concern troll of a book, but that's mainly due to Billy Bob F'n Thornton.

[Alack]

Fight Club?

[John]

Was Fight Club a good or a bad book?

Unbearable Lightness of Being.

[deified]

Thank You for Smoking

[Palin's Buttplug]

In the hearing Miller said there was no political motive or bias at the top of the IRS.

Another one bites the dust.

[Ken Shultz]

You mean there was no bias in practice? Or there was no bias in the bottom of their little hearts?

Because there was bias in practice. That isn't disputable.

We'll never know what feelings were really in their golden hearts while they were targeting their boss' enemies, but we know that what usually comes out of bureaucrat mouths when they get caught like this is really high grade bullshit.

[John Galt]

It may not be possible to know their feelings, but their intentions were obvious.

[tarran]

You know, if I give my prospective employees a screening test, and it just happens that black people are filtered out by the screening test, the EEOC won't give a shit about my intentions. They'll nail my ass to the wall.

In the meantime, their story that this wasn't harassment makes no sense. None of the extra questions and additional documents they demanded would help them figure out whether the organization was violating the only restriction that class of non-profit faces: it can't endorse specific candidates.

Like Citizens United, the IRS debacle is a great way of separating the mindless partisans from people who have a connection with reality and critical thinking skills.

[PapayaSF]

Indeed. Buttplug's argument never seems to apply in the other direction, does it? I'm sure Bush never ordered prisoners abused at Abu Ghraib, so that was a non-issue for Bush, right?

[John]

+10000

[John]

+10000

[John]

+10000

[Auric Demonocles]

Was that really more necessary than just a single "+30000"?

[John]

The damn squirrels did it to me.

[Ken Shultz]

Palin's Buttplug knows exactly what was in their hearts--they told the investigators!

What more do we need to know?

And speaking of what's in people's hearts, I guess this is how the partisans deal with these kinds of revelations--denial?

I was fairly neutral on Bush right up until Abu Ghraib, the prescription drug benefit, the horseshit about Yellow Cake in Niger, warrantless wiretapping etc., etc.

Then I capped on Bush so hard around here for so long, newbies thought I was a liberal.

I could never pretend the evil shit Bush did wasn't evil--just because he wasn't a Democrat. There's like a moral defect in some people to keep defending their like that. There's a point where you have to either condemn his behavior or go insanely ludicrous...

I think we're seeing that kind of wheat being separated from the chafe among liberals right now. Maybe that's the REAL difference between a liberal and a progressive. A liberal will abandon his support for someone who violates his principles, but a progressive will sacrifice all pretenses to personal integrity so long as the man leading the charge is still going in the direction they want.

[John]

A liberal will abandon his support for someone who violates his principles,

So I guess liberals supported drones, torture and GUITMO all along. LOLOLOLOLOL

I need to stop calling you retarded. It is an insult to retarded people.

[Ken Shultz]

Well, even when I'm not being mistaken for Shrike, I do think there are some misguided liberals out there who really do have principles and will abandon a Democrat president for violating them.

But I'm not talking about pundits and politicians; I mean regular people like you and me. Every once in a while, some liberal or conservative president does something that makes you either criticize him or you've given up your integrity.

They may cling to the idea that he's better than whatever Republican alternative, but there really are horribly misguided but with their integrity intact liberals out there. ...they mostly skew older, and a lot of them were alive and kicking back when Jim Crow was still around, etc.

[John]

Sorry Ken. Misread and posted on wrong thread. You are not Shreek

[Lord Humungus]

+1 internetz

[lap83]

I haven't met any principled liberals. I think there are progressives and idealists. The latter can wisen up once they are brutally confronted with reality. The former will never change because they are power-hungry.

[lap83]

Btw, I think the main difference between ideals and principles is the level of emotion. Both ends of the political spectrum can and do have ideals, but I don't think the left has any principles. They have power hungry people at the top and passionate, utopian people to vote for them. It's all based on emotion.

[John Galt]

Ours is not to question why, but rather to behave as expected or pay the price for non-compliance.

As the Father of our Country, President Obama, explained:

"our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule has been so successful that trusting the government is the same as trusting ourselves; hence, challenging the government is the same as challenging ourselves."

There is no legitimate excuse for reality, and even less for critical thinking.

[Fatty Bolger]

Yes, and you keep telling us how you're a libertarian, too.

[John]

Yeah, they denied committing a federal crime. What a fucking surprise. Just because you are retarded shreek, doesn't mean the rest of us are.

[Jordan]

And a year ago, we were told that Tea Party groups weren't being singled out. Fuck, you'll swallow anything. Your gag reflex must be non-existent at this point.

[John]

And don't forget, she recieved hundreds of thousands in bonuses while in this position. The Administration was apparently very happy with her performance.

[PapayaSF]

Like I wrote yesterday, the drip-drip-drip of this scandal will keep it going.

[John]

Yeah. Look at it this way. The Democratic House members from Massachusetts are upset about this. Now, a Congress creature of either party only gets upset over things that can cost them their jobs. If the Ds from Mass are worried about this, this is going to be a big deal.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Well, now that the GOP has been caught doctoring State Dept e-mails Benghazi is done now.

The IRS scandal is all there is left.

[John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuGtxt84wPQ

Look over there!! BUSHPIG!!! CHRISTFAG!!!

[PapayaSF]

Jeebus, you'll toss out just any bullshit. No, the GOP did not get "caught doctoring State Dept e-mails."

[WTF]

This just in, shriek will gobble Obama cock no matter what the facts.

[John Galt]

What happened to the good ole days when they'd follow their Obama's to Jonestown, or just castrate themselves and try to catch a ride on the "spaceship" behind the Hale-Bop comet?

[John Galt]

So you're comparing this scandal to gonorrhea?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS' Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Reminds me of that part in Casino where the mob lawyer tells DeNiro that his criminal background won't be an issue to run the casino, as long as he keeps giving the gaming commission a new job title every so often in order to push his license application to the bottom of the pile.