An IRS official who was reportedly involved in the Tea Party targeting scandal is now overseeing the implementation of Obamacare.
This has prompted one US Senator to recommend putting Obamacare, a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act, on “pause” while all of the IRS misconduct is sorted out.
The IRS has apologized for wrongfully profiling Tea Party and other politically conservative groups when they applied for tax-exempt status. An FBI criminal investigation is underway along with a probe by Congress into these inappropriate activities.
Sarah Hall Ingram reportedly was in charge of the IRS office that processed tax-exempt organizations from 2009 to 20012. Her successor has already announced his resignation. The IRS, however, claims that she took over the Affordable Care Office full time by the end of 2010. Ingram also received over $100,000 in bonuses from the IRS. “Bonuses as large as those awarded to Ingram typically require presidential approval, according to federal personnel regulations.”
As a result of the IRS scandal, US Sen. John Thune (R – S.D). says that the implementation of Obamacare should be suspended. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the senator wrote: “[P]lease confirm whether Ms. Hall Ingram is a subject of the Department of Justice’s investigation into whether IRS employees broke criminal laws by singling out conservative groups for special review and inappropriate questions.
The letter continued: “Additionally, until there are sufficient answers as to her involvement, I request that the IRS refrain from issuing or enforcing any regulations that have been drafted under the supervision of Ms. Hall Ingram in her current capacity as director of the IRS’s Affordable Care Act office, which is responsible for implementing the health care law. The IRS should also immediately cease work on additional Affordable Care Act regulations until the Department of Justice confirms that Ms. Hall Ingram is not a subject of the criminal investigation, Ms. Hall Ingram is removed from this office, or Ms. Hall Ingram is exonerated by an investigation by the Department of Justice.”
In another one of her epic rants , FNC’s Judge Jeanine Pirro addressed herself to the president requiring the resignation of the Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller “who wasn’t even there when the wrongdoing occurred but you give Sarah Ingram, the tax-exempt commissioner who was there implementing this abuse of power a plumb assignment in charge of the tax agency that oversees the Obamacare office… And you want her to oversee my healthcare? You want my health and my life in her hands?”
Under Obamacare, the tax agency will gain access to Americans’ personal medical records.
Do you think Obamacare should be put on hold until the IRS scandal is resolved?
[Top image via Andrew F. Kazmierski / Shutterstock.com ]