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Paul L. Caron
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Saturday, July 30, 2016

The IRS Scandal, Day 1178

IRS Logo 2Salt Lake City Tribune, IRS Chief Says Chaffetz’s Drive to Oust Him Will Leave Few Wanting Top Federal Jobs:

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz's relentless drive to impeach him will scare good people away from entering government service and is damaging his agency.

"If this is the signal we are sending to people thinking about coming to take a senior position in government, it's going to make it harder for good people to come in," Koskinen told reporters during a visit Wednesday to the Ogden IRS service center.

He adds that Republicans have slashed the IRS budget to punish him and the agency. With that, the Ogden center has lost 1,300 employees through attrition over the past five years — leaving about 5,000 there — and customer service is suffering.

Chaffetz, a Republican, fired back that if Koskinen wants to stop such perceived damage, "He can solve this himself by doing the right thing for the nation and stepping aside. He is so egotistical that he can't bear to do that." ...

"It goes beyond me. My concern is that no appointed official has been impeached for 140 years. So if we are suddenly, on relatively poorly supported facts, going to start attacking senior officials, people in the private sector" will have second thoughts about public service.

They will think, "It doesn't look like much fun," he said. "You get yelled at a lot in a hearing," and Congress may try "to impeach you." House Republicans even sought, he said, to reduce his salary to zero or take away his pension.

Future presidents may discover that it is "harder to find people who want to be Cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, agency heads," he said. "It's going to be interesting to see who wants to take this seat next." ...

Chaffetz responded in a telephone interview. "He may say it has been fixed, but the GAO [Government Accountability Office, a research arm of Congress] begs to differ."

Chaffetz said Koskinen "has not solved this problem. He has exacerbated it." Also, "I think he provided false testimony to Congress. There should be a consequence."

Koskinen said he plans to serve until his term ends in November 2017. "I have no intention of being hounded out of office." ...

Chaffetz added, "We're not going to have productive interactions with the IRS as long as he's the commissioner. ... I do think it's affecting tens of thousands of workers in a very negative way. That's his choice, not mine."

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Comments

Chamfers needs to go. He cannot handle power responsibly.

Posted by: Sterling | Jul 31, 2016 3:43:35 AM

Everyone should see the new DSouza movie. It lays out hundreds of years of Democrat's corrupt history. The modern day Democrats are just as corrupt.

Its a big tell when Democrats say they are worried that Trump will act like Obama or the Clinton's. Its projection.

Posted by: Wodun | Jul 30, 2016 10:44:48 AM

"Lost" emails, "crashed" hard drives (several IRS workers had simultaneous bad luck) and erased back up tapes. The IRS is going to get away with taking out over four hundred conservative groups in the last election cycle because our MSM doesn't give a rip. Imagine if a GOP administration tried this? This guy should be impeached to set an example to the rest of the Democrat party's bureaucratic state. This is just the beginning. Wait until Hillary gets in. She and her SCOTUS will install an administrative state that will put conservatives out of business. That's the goal with the help of the media.

Posted by: VoteOutIncumbents | Jul 30, 2016 9:43:20 AM

PN deflect, deflect, deflect. Alinsky would be proud of you.

Posted by: Dale Spradling | Jul 30, 2016 7:59:08 AM

Rep. Chaffetz is a very poor legislator. The people of Utah can do better.

Posted by: Publius Novus | Jul 30, 2016 5:43:43 AM