they don t think there s any link between this young man and terrorism, but the investigation goes on. bill: irs taking heat from both sides of the aisle after admitting to targeting conservative groups. meanwhile, this scandal touching off concerns over what this means for implementing obamacare. the irs has a major hand in this. doug mckelway s live in washington. some senate democrats seemed to change their tune quickly after this story broke last week, doug. reporter: that s right, bill. you know, the chairman of the senate finance committee, max baucus, was one of the first be members of congress to loudly call for investigations into the irs after the scandal broke. senator jeanne shaheen just yesterday called for an audit of the irs. but in 2010 baucus asked that 501c4s be more closely examined, and in march of last year seven senate democrats, including shaheen, wrote the irs you urging it to impose strict tax on profits.
we had somebody on yesterday told me they were it was somebody on the right yesterday was here. and she was pointing out that they were held to a standard. they could not get involved in elections. they couldn t put the name of candidates on their ballot, on materials they send out. there is some disciplining going on among these groups. you and i know it s a vague difference between saying you re a policy organization and you hate obama care, but they were told they couldn t say the word obama care as they get closer to the election. so somebody s at least policing this correctly. if you were holding a hearing right now on the next commissioner of the irs, what standard would you set? what actions would you demand of that person, man or woman, who s about to get the permanent job now, because it s open? well, i would look at, first of all, i d look at what senator whitehouse shared with a group of us today. senator whitehouse from rhode island. what these forms say that you fill
of political advertising in a campaign season. corporations aren t just exxon mobil and so, there are a bunch of people that incorporate as 501 c4s, social welfare organizations, but are going to be getting a lot of adds in and don t have to disclose their donors. the question is, well, these things that say they re 501c4s, the irs has to stay what is the standard, what do you learn about what the irs is supposed to do when faced with this genuinely difficult question. these people say they re going to be a social welfare organization. which side of the line do they fall on? here s the main thing i learned from this. the people in cincinnati who are charged with looking at the applications and deciding if a c4 group is going to do permissible political activity, don t themselves understand the irs rules for what is
where the political winds are blowing is a myth. we thought multiple occasions about if war when cia was shaping intelligence what the white house wanted to hear. now, in this case, i m not equating the two, but there is a parallel. everybody who after citizens united, a lot of people were concerned about the abuse of 501c4s and those organizations to pump big money into the electoral process. leading democrats in congress announced it, then after the 2010 election, these bureaucrats in cincinnati decided they re going to target the tea party. now, they targeted the wrong people. there were much bigger abusers of the 501c4, but it s hard divorce that from the larger political winds that were blowing at the time.
cincinnati on their own, but the idea that government bureaucrats operate is a vacuum without knowledge of where the political winds are blowing is a myth. we thought multiple occasions about if war when cia was shaping intelligence what the white house wanted to hear. now, in this case, i m not equating the two, but there is a parallel. everybody who after citizens united, a lot of people were concerned about the abuse of 501c4s and those organizations to pump big money into the electoral process. the president denounced it. leading democrats in congress announced it, then after the 2010 election, these bureaucrats in cincinnati decided they re going to target the tea party. now, they targeted the wrong people. there were much bigger abusers of the 501c4, but it s hard to divorce that from the larger political winds that were blowing at the time. absolutely and had they, had they themselves made a decision