Arizona’s congressman Paul Gosar questioned former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman at yesterday’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing entitled “The IRS: Targeting Americans for Their Political Beliefs.” The congressman said his line of questioning “demonstrated a continued pattern of IRS leaks and a long history of inaction by the former IRS Commissioner to investigate.”
“Getting the truth and demanding accountability from President Obama’s IRS should not be too much to ask for. Yet, officials in this administration continue to offer excuses and half-truths for what has developed into a disturbing trend. Tax information about the President’s political opponents has been leaked. Americans were targeted for their political beliefs. I will relentlessly pursue the truth and hold those guilty of gross incompetence accountable.”
Many taxpayers were disappointed when Chair Darrell Issa did not relentlessly pursue the truth on Wednesday and find Lois Lerner had waived her constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination after she gave offered the Committee a self-serving statement. Issa says he now plans to bring the director of the IRS’s tax-exempt department back to the committee for questioning, according to POLITICO.
Gosar questioned Shulman about an incident in 2010 in which Austan Goolsbee, a senior Obama administration official, discussed Koch Industries tax status during an August 27 press briefing. Gosar asked Shulman if he asked his staff how Goolsbee would get that information. Gosar expressed concern that reports about leaks of taxpayers’ confidential information did not seem to concern Shulman.
Gosar said to Shulman, “As the head person with these big these happening you should have followed up. Beauty is in the detail. I’ve watched you all day and you’re really good at certain parts of detail and then you obscure the rest.”