Bee's note: "Brother, can you spare a dime?" Add the "slush fund" and missing IRS money to the Washington, DC "phony" scandal's ongoing list.
"this is the same IRS that has been stonewalling Congress in revealing who is responsible for the IRS targeting of conservative and Tea Party organizations." ....
"this is the same IRS that has been stonewalling Congress in revealing who is responsible for the IRS targeting of conservative and Tea Party organizations." ....
Posted 09.26.13 by Greg Campbell,
Don’t you just hate it when you go to pay for a cup of coffee only to discover that you have somehow misplaced that $10 bill you thought you had in your pocket?
The IRS, who has been charged with the task of overseeing the enforcement of Obamacare, has done exactly that. Only it’s not a $10 bill; it’s $67 million they have misplaced.
In April of 2012, the Obama Administration shifted half a billion dollars from the DHS to the IRS to disguise the fact that the IRS had run out the necessary funds to enforce the Obamacare mandates that were not even in effect. The Obama Administration set up this slush fund for the IRS to dip from to offset their costs, but have, somehow, been unable to account for $67 million that appears to have been siphoned off bit-by-bit.
A U.S. treasury report outlines the larceny. According to Americans for Tax Reform,
The IRS is unable to account for $67 million spent from a slush fund established for Obamacare implementation, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report released today.The “Health Insurance Reform Implementation Fund” (HIRIF) was tucked into Obamacare in order to give the IRS money to enforce the tax provisions of the healthcare law. The fund, totaling some $1 billion of taxpayer money, was used to roll out enforcement mechanisms for the approximately 50 tax provisions of Obamacare.According to the report: “Specifically, the IRS did not account for or attempt to quantify approximately $67 million [from the slush fund] of indirect ACA costs incurred for Fiscal Years 2010 through 2012.”The report also found several other abuses of taxpayer funds, including:Travel abuse: The report states, “Specifically, we identified 38 IRS employees in two judgmentally selected business units whose travel was charged to the HIRIF in FY 2012, but no portion of their salary and related benefits was charged to the HIRIF.” In short, the IRS was not making sure that employee travel reimbursements had anything to do with the purpose of the fund. This is not the first time that IRS employee travel has created a scandal for the agency.1,272 IRS Obamacare enforcement agents: The report estimates that total slush fund spending cost taxpayers the equivalent of 1,272 new full time IRS agents.The IRS requested an additional 859 IRS Obamacare enforcement agents for Fiscal Year 2013: According to the report, “The IRS informed us that it requested $360 million and 859 FTEs for FY 2013 to continue implementation of the ACA. However, the IRS did not receive this requested amount for FY 2013.”
The IRS has claimed that they will cooperate with the investigation into the missing money, but as the money has already been spent, it’s unlikely that any remedy can be sought. Further, this is the same IRS that has been stonewalling Congress in revealing who is responsible for the IRS targeting of conservative and Tea Party organizations.
The recent revelation concerning the IRS’ misuse of $67 million is seething with irony. This is the same organization that has been entrusted with the task of responsibly enforcing Obamacare mandates. Further, as a tax-collecting organization that relies on accurate accounting, it’s ironic that they would misplace $67 million.
If any American citizen misplaced a significant amount of money and omitted it from their tax filings, would the IRS just shrug it off as an innocent mistake? Doubtful.
