Civil Liberties

IRS Still Targeting Tea Party, Says Employee

Pretty bold

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The Internal Revenue Service still isn't processing tea party applications for tax-exempt status, according to an IRS agent recently interviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Despite President Obama's promise to "put in place safeguards to make sure this kind of behavior can't happen again," it's unclear whether any new safeguards have been applied at all. The agent, whose job is to screen applications for potential political activity, said he and his coworkers have not been given new guidance on how to process such applications.

During the interview, the agent was asked if he would "treat a tea party group as a political advocacy case even if there was no evidence of political activity on the application." The agent responded: "Based on my current manager's direction, uh-huh."