Obama on IRS Targeting Pro-Lifers: This Will Never Happen Again

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 15, 2013   |   6:34PM   |   Washington, DC

President Barack Obama addressed the massive IRS scandal this afternoon and promised it would never happen again.

The president said the misconduct from the IRS report is “inexcusable.” The president added that the Treasury secretary requested and has accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner of the IRS

“I will not tolerate this kind of behavior,” he said. “Here’s what we’re gonna do: We’re gonna hold the responsible parties accountable.”

“We’re going to put in place new safeguards…We will work with Congress as it performs its oversight role,” he added, saying laws must be applied in a “fair and impartial way.”

“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure this never happens again,” he promised.

The short speech didn’t go over well with conservatives with columnist Charles Krauthammer saying, “That was the absolute minimum he could have done.”

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced today he will hold a hearing on the IRS scandal. The federal agency has targeted pro-life groups as well as conservative and religious organizations.

In one case LifeNews has profiled, a pro-life group was told it had to promote abortion. A top pro-life legal group also informed LifeNews that cases it handled support mounting accusations that demonstrate the agency’s abuse of pro-life organizations, in addition to those identified as ‘tea party’, ‘patriot’, or ‘government spending’ groups.

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Congressman Steve Scalice, a republican, also responded to the scandal:

This latest government scandal at the IRS is a fresh reminder of the political thuggery that has characterized the Obama Administration. The Internal Revenue Service’s decision to illegally target Americans based on their beliefs and values represents another low point for the Obama Administration, and adds to their culture of political thuggery against Americans who disagree with their political agenda. Anyone involved in either the decision to target Americans or the subsequent cover up, from the White House on down, must be held accountable for their shameful and illegal actions.

The American people deserve to know what the White House knew about this scandal and when they knew it. The fact that the IRS targeted groups simply because they expressed an interest in the tea party movement or “making America a better place to live” is outrageous and there is no place for such anti-American attitudes at any federal agency, let alone the IRS, which deals with our sensitive tax records.

The IRS even shook down some conservative groups—bullying them in to turning over their private lists of donors, which are supposed to be confidential. It’s quite telling that President Obama has yet to call for anyone’s resignation as result of this scandal, but the House is aggressively investigating and will hold those responsible accountable.