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119) Lied about the Benghazi attack

In September 2012, after four U.S. citizens were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama administration falsely said that the attack was a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim video at YouTube.

CBS News reported that although it was obviously a terrorist attack, it took an entire week before the Obama administration was willing to acknowledge it as such.

The Washington Post reported that Obama had falsely said that he had called it a terrorist attack from the very start.

After the attack began, someone (there is a debate over who this someone was) ordered the nearby U.S. military to “stand down,”, i.e., not offer any assistance. Obama is the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military. Obama later falsely claimed that the “stand down” order had not been made.

Although the Obama administration made a dozen revisions to its talking points on this incident, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney falsely stated that only a “single adjustment” had been made, and that it simply involved changing the wording of “consulate” to “diplomatic facility.” ABC News published a complete list of all the changes to the talking points, which can be read here.

Among the changes was the deletion of this entire paragraph:

“The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya. These noted that, since April, there have been at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants, including the June attack against the British Ambassador’s convoy. We cannot rule out the individuals has previously surveilled the U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.”

Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, played a key role in the editing of the talking points. But instead of firing her for this, Obama offered her a promotion.

The Obama administration asked Fox News to stop reporting on Benghazi.
 
120) Paid a train carrying biofuel to cross the U.S.-Canadian border 24 times without unloading

As part of Obama’s “green energy” program, Obama used tax money to pay for a train full of biofuel to cross the U.S.-Canadian border 24 times without unloading its cargo.

121) Falsely said that “we got back every dime” of the bailout

In October 2012, Obama said that “we got back every dime” of the bailout. However, at the same time, the Congressional Budget Office that said there was still $24 billion that had not been paid back.

122) Spent $50,000 of taxpayer money on a George S. Patton impersonator

In the summer of 2011, the Obama administration spent $50,000 on a George S. Patton impersonator

123) Spent $75,000 of taxpayer money on a bicycle

The Obama administration spent $75,000 of taxpayer money on a bicycle.

124) Complained to YouTube about an anti-Muslim video

In September 2012, the Obama administration phoned YouTube to complain about an anti-Muslim video.

Ben Wizner of the ACLU said that of this, “It does make us nervous when the government throws its weight behind any requests for censorship.”

Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said of this, “I am actually kind of distressed by this… Even though there are all these great quotes from inside the White House saying they support free speech….by calling YouTube from the White House, they were sending a message no matter how much they say we don’t want them to take it down, when the White House calls and asks you to review it, it sends a message and has a certain chilling effect.”

125) Falsely said that Fast and Furious was started when Bush was President

In September 2012, Obama said that Fast and Furious had “begun under the previous administration.” In reality, Fast and Furious began in October 2009.

126) Is a “war criminal” who is “more aggressive, more illegal worldwide” than Bush, according to Ralph Nader

In September 2012, Ralph Nader said that Obama was a “war criminal” who was “more aggressive, more illegal worldwide” than George W. Bush.

127) Illegally refused to fire Kathleen Sebelius after she violated campaign finance laws

In February 2012, Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, violated campaign finance laws. Although federal law required Obama to fire Sebelius for her illegal activity, he refused to do so.

128) Supported policies that hurt small businesses

In September 2012, a survey of small business owners showed that 69% of them said that Obama’s regulatory policies have hurt small businesses. 55% said that they would not start a business under the current environment.

129) Spent $102,000 per year of taxpayer money on a “dog handler”

In September 2012, it was reported that Obama spent $102,000 of taxpayer money each year on a “dog handler.”
 
130) Refused to fire a federal employee who sent an email to 17,000 people praising a terrorist who wanted to destroy the U.S.

In 2012, an employee of Obama’s administration sent an email to more than 17,000 federal employees which praised Che Guevara, a terrorist who had wanted to destroy the U.S. Obama refused to fire the employee.

131) Called Fort Hood shooting “workplace violence” instead of “Islamic terrorism”

After Nidal Malik Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar!” and murdered 13 people on U.S. soil, instead of referring to it as “Islamic terrorism,” Obama said that it was “workplace violence.”

132) Falsely said that switching to electronic medical records would make health care cheaper

Although Obama claimed that switching to electronic record keeping as part of Obamacare would make health care cheaper, it actually made it more expensive.

133) Spent $495,000 of “stimulus” money for ads on MSNBC

Obama spent $495,000 of “stimulus” money for commercials on MSNBC.

134) Lied about the cost of federal regulations

In September 2012, it was reported that the cost of federal regulations to citizens and business owners was more than 20 times as much as what Obama had said it was.
 
135) Broke his promise to pass immigration bill, and then lied about why he broke it

In 2008, Obama promised that he would pass an immigration bill during his first year in office. He broke that promise. He then blamed this on Republicans, even though both the House and Senate were controlled by Democrats during Obama’s first year.

136) Made it much harder for start ups to raise capital and create jobs

In July 2010, Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act. The Wall St. Journal wrote of this:

“Senator Chris Dodd’s 1,400-page financial reform bill contains many economic land mines, and here’s one of the worst: Provisions that would make it harder for business start-ups to raise seed capital.”

“Currently, wealthy individuals who want to invest directly in a new business can do so with minimum interference from regulators. The law requires only that the investor be “accredited” by meeting thresholds for net worth ($1 million) or income ($250,000). Entrepreneurs depend on these “angel” investors, since many new businesses lack the collateral for bank loans and are too small to interest venture capitalists. “

“Amazon, Yahoo, Google and Facebook all benefited from angel investors, who typically target companies under five years old. According to a 2009 Kaufman Foundation study, such firms are less than 1% of all companies yet generate about 10% of new jobs. Between 1980 and 2005, companies less than five years old accounted for all net job growth in the U.S. In 2008, angels invested some $19 billion in more than 55,000 companies. “

“Mr. Dodd’s bill would change all this for the worse. Most preposterously, it would require that start-ups seeking angel investments file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and endure a 120-day review. Rare is the new company that doesn’t need immediate access to the capital it raises, and a four-month delay is the kind of rule popular in banana republics that create few new businesses. “

“The Dodd bill also raises the net worth and income thresholds to $2.3 million and $450,000, respectively. The Angel Capital Association, a trade group, estimates that these provisions would disqualify about 77% of current accredited investors.”

137) Paid six figure salaries to federal employees so they could watch pornography all day long

In April 2010, ABC News reported:

“On a day when President Obama argued for more government regulation over the financial industry, a new government report reveals that some high-level regulators have spent more time looking at porn than policing Wall Street. “

“The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to be the sheriff of the financial industry, looking for financial crimes like Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. But the new report, obtained by ABC News, says senior employees of the SEC spent hours on the commission’s computers looking at sites like naughty.com, skankwire, youporn, and others. “

“The investigation, which was conducted by the SEC’s internal watchdog at the request of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, found 31 serious offenders over the past two and a half years. Seventeen of the offenders were senior SEC officers with salaries ranging from $100,000 to $222,000 per year. “

“Eight Hours a Day Spent on Porn Sites”

“One senior attorney at SEC headquarters in Washington spent up to eight hours a day accessing Internet porn. When he filled all the space on his government computer with pornographic images, he downloaded more to CDs and DVDs that accumulated in boxes in his offices. “

“An SEC accountant attempted to access porn websites 1,800 times in a two-week period and had 600 pornographic images on her computer hard drive.”

“Another SEC accountant attempted to access porn sites 16,000 times in a single month.”

In May 2014, Bloomberg News reported: "An employee at the Environmental Protection Agency downloaded more than 7,000 pornographic files onto a government computer and viewed them for two to six hours a day, according to the agency’s independent watchdog".

When Obama left office. the employee caught viewing pornography was still on the payroll, earning about $120,000 a year.
 
138) Spent tax dollars on a “mindreader”

Obama used taxpayer money to hire a “mindreader.”

139) Used tax dollars to build a million dollar bus stop

Obama spent federal tax dollars to pay for part of the cost of a million dollar bus stop which opened in Arlington, Virginia in March 2013. Despite its huge cost, the bus stop can only accommodate 15 people, and does not even protect them from the wind and rain.

140) Filed a lawsuit against a non-existent “monopoly” in the beer industry

Although the number of breweries in the U.S. increased from 89 to 2,336 between 1978 and 2013, the Obama administration sued Anheuser-Busch InBev, which already owned half of Mexico’s Grupo Modelo, to prevent if from buying the other half, despite the fact that there were no laws on the books against such a purchase. The Obama administration’s so-called justification for this lawsuit against a law abiding company was that the company might, possibly, maybe, break some unspecified law, at some unspecified, distant point in the future.

141) Falsely said the sequester would cause janitors to take a pay cut

In February 2013, while talking about the sequester, Obama said

“The folks who are cleaning the floors at the Capitol — now that Congress has left, somebody is going to be vacuuming and cleaning those floors and throwing out the garbage — they’re going to have less pay… The janitors, the security guards, they just got a pay cut, and they’ve got to figure out how to manage that. That’s real.”

CBS News reported that Obama’s statement was false.

142) Falsely said that he goes skeet shooting “all the time”

At the beginning of Obama’s second term, he said that he goes skeet shooting “all the time.” However, a witness said that when he saw Obama go skeet shooting, Obama acted as if he had never fired a gun before, that he appeared to be uncomfortable with a gun, and that he only stayed for five minutes. In addition, during his first term, the media had never reported on his alleged skeet shooting, although it never failed to cover the more than 100 rounds of golf that he played during his first term.

143) Gave special access to people who raised or donated $500,000

In February 2013, the New York Times reported that people who raised or donated at least $500,000 to Organizing for Action, a political group that supported Obama, would be given “the privilege of attending quarterly meetings with the president, along with other meetings at the White House.”

144) Said the deficit had gone down when it had actually gone up

In February 2013, Obama said that the federal deficit had gone down by $2.5 trillion since he had taken office. In reality, it had actually increased by $5.9 trillion during that time.

145) Refused to make available necessary tax forms to taxpayers

On February 21, 2013, CBS News reported that the Obama administration had not yet made available dozens of different tax forms that taxpayers would need in order to meet the legal deadline of April 15 for filing their taxes.

146) Nominated someone to be Secretary of the Treasury who had participated in “the biggest tax scam on record”

Obama nominated Jack Lew to be Secretary of the Treasury. Lew had previously invested in the Cayman Islands, which Obama had referred to as “the biggest tax scam on record.”

147) Adopted harmful new restrictions on prescription painkillers – even though the House had already voted against them

After the U.S. House voted against new restrictions on prescription painkillers, the Obama administration ignored the House’s vote, and adopted the new restrictions anyway. Dr. Lynn Webster, president-elect of the American Academy of Pain Medicine said of these new restrictions, “It will have an impact on a lot of patients who have been receiving them for some time for legitimate purposes.”

148) Rolled back union transparency rules

The Obama administration rolled back union transparency rules, which had been created so that union members could find out how their union was spending their union dues.

149) Tried to eliminate workers’ right to a secret ballot when voting on whether or not to unionize

Obama supported the elimination of workers’ right to a secret ballot when voting on whether or not to form a union

150) Gave “supervised release” to a convicted criminal who later went on to murder a nun

Obama gave “supervised release” to a convicted criminal, who then went on to murder a nun.
 
151) Falsely said that he did not propose the sequester

On October 22, 2012, Obama said, “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed.” However, on February 22, 2013, the Washington Post reported that “the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House” and that “Obama personally approved of the plan.”

152) Illegally refused to submit a budget on time during four of his first five years

The President is legally required to submit a budget by the first Monday in February. Obama broke this law during four of his first five years in office. Since 1921, no President had missed this deadline more than once.

153) Canceled White House tours for thousands of people so he could use the money to play golf with Tiger Woods

During the sequester in early 2013, the Obama administration said it would save $18,000 per week by cancelling all White house tours, despite the fact that thousands of people had planned their vacations far in advance. However, Obama had no problem with spending more than $1 million in tax money so he could go golfing with Tiger Woods for one weekend.

154) Falsely said the Newton shooter used a “fully automatic weapon”

In April 2013, four months after Adam Lanza murdered 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Obama falsely stated that the shooter had used a “fully automatic weapon.”

155) Broke his own deadline for creating healthcare exchanges

Three years after Obama signed Obamacare, the New York Times reported that Obama would miss his own deadline for creating some of the insurance exchanges for small businesses.

156) Falsely said that surgeons get paid between $30,000 and $50,000 for amputating a leg

In August 2009, while trying to justify the passage of Obamacare, Obama stated “Let’s take the example of something like diabetes, one of — a disease that’s skyrocketing, partly because of obesity, partly because it’s not treated as effectively as it could be. Right now if we paid a family — if a family care physician works with his or her patient to help them lose weight, modify diet, monitors whether they’re taking their medications in a timely fashion, they might get reimbursed a pittance. But if that same diabetic ends up getting their foot amputated, that’s $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 — immediately the surgeon is reimbursed. Well, why not make sure that we’re also reimbursing the care that prevents the amputation, right? That will save us money.”

The American College of Surgeons responded to this by saying “President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.”
 
157) Falsely said that doctors perform unnecessary tonsillectomies to make more money

In July 2009, Obama said “Right now, doctors, a lot of times, are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there. So if … your child has a bad sore throat, or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.'”

“Now, that may be the right thing to do. But I’d rather have that doctor making those decisions just based on whether you really need your kid’s tonsils out or whether it might make more sense just to change — maybe they have allergies. Maybe they have something else that would make a difference.”

The American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery responded by saying “The AAO-HNS is disappointed by the President’s portrayal of the decision making processes by the physicians who perform these surgeries. In many cases, tonsillectomy may be a more effective treatment, and less costly, than prolonged or repeated treatments for an infected throat.”

158) Purchased 2,717 mine resistant armor protected vehicles for use on civilian streets in the U.S.

In March 2013 it was reported that the Obama administration had purchased 2,717 mine resistant armor protected vehicles for use on civilian streets in the U.S.

159) Spends $277,050 per year for three professional calligraphists

In March 2013, it was reported that Obama was spending $277,050 of tax money per year for three professional calligraphists. It was also reported that cheap computer software could produce the exact same calligraphy for a tiny fraction of that cost.

160) Allowed 311,566 federal employees and retirees to get away with $3.5 billion in unpaid federal taxes

In 2011, Obama allowed 311,566 federal employees and retirees to get away with $3.5 billion in unpaid federal taxes.

161) Spent $2.6 million to teach Chinese prostitutes how to drink responsibly on the job

Obama spent $2.6 million to teach Chinese prostitutes how to drink responsibly on the job.

162) Fined UPS $40 million because some of its customers had used UPS to ship illegal drugs

In March 2013, Obama forced UPS to pay $40 million because some of its customers had used UPS to ship illegal drugs.
 
163) Added 20,000 extra pages to Obamacare without Congressional approval

After Obamacare was passed, Obama added 20,000 extra pages to it, even though those extra 20,000 pages had not been voted on by Congress.

164 ) Signed health care reform law whose own authors called it a “huge train wreck” that was “beyond comprehension”

U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana), one of the authors of Obamacare, said of it, “I just see a huge train wreck coming down.”

U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), another author of the law, said it was “beyond comprehension.”

165) Eliminated disclosure requirements for most federal employees in the executive and legislative branches

In April 2013, Obama eliminated the disclosure requirements for most federal employees in the executive and legislative branches.

166) Waited until after the 2012 election to release unpopular Obamacare rules

In April 2013, the New York Times reported: "Even fervent supporters of the law admit that things are going worse than expected. The Obama administration didn’t want to release unpopular rules before the election. Everything is turning out to be more complicated than originally envisioned. A law that was very confusing has become mind-boggling. Americans are just going to be overwhelmed and befuddled. Many are just going to stay away, even if they are eligible for benefits".

167) Made it easy for people to fraudulently collect $50,000 by falsely claiming to be “farmers”

In April 2013, the New York Times reported "The Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate. The deal was fashioned in White House meetings. The $50,000 payouts to black farmers had proved a magnet for fraud. The claims process prompted allegations of widespread fraud and criticism that its very design encouraged people to lie… Agriculture Department reviewers found reams of suspicious claims, from nursery-school-age children and pockets of urban dwellers, sometimes in the same handwriting with nearly identical accounts of discrimination".

As a senator, Obama supported expanding compensation for black farmers, and then as president he pressed for $1.15 billion to pay those new claims.

In 16 ZIP codes in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and North Carolina, the number of successful claimants exceeded the total number of farms operated by people of any race in 1997, the year the lawsuit was filed. Those applicants received nearly $100 million.

In Maple Hill, a struggling town in southeastern North Carolina, the number of people paid was nearly four times the total number of farms. More than one in nine African-American adults there received checks. In Little Rock, Ark., a confidential list of payments shows, 10 members of one extended family collected a total of $500,000, and dozens of other successful claimants shared addresses, phone numbers or close family connections.

In Arkansas, prosecutors rejected a test case against a Pine Bluff police officer who had admitted lying on his claim form.

In one ZIP code in Columbus, Ohio, nearly everyone in two adjoining apartment buildings had filed.

One woman cinched the claim by asserting that her father had whispered on his deathbed, “I was discriminated against by U.S.D.A.”
 
168) Tried to rig federal auctions of radio spectrum space

In April 2013, it was reported that the Obama administration was trying to rig federal auctions of radio spectrum space in a manner that would favor Sprint and T-Mobile, and make it harder for AT&T and Verizon.

169) Put someone in jail for making an anti-Muslim video

In May 2013, Politico reported: “Nakoula Basseley Nakoula deserves a place in American history. He is the first person in this country jailed for violating Islamic anti-blasphemy laws. You won’t find that anywhere in the charges against him, of course. As a practical matter, though, everyone knows that Nakoula wouldn’t be in jail today if he hadn’t produced a video crudely lampooning the prophet Muhammad. In the weeks after the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, the Obama administration claimed the terrorist assault had been the outgrowth of a demonstration against the Nakoula video. The administration ran public service announcements in Pakistan featuring President Barack Obama saying the U.S. had nothing to do with it. In a speech at the United Nations around this time, the president declared — no doubt with Nakoula in mind — ‘The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.' After Benghazi, the administration was evidently filled with a fierce resolve — to bring Nakoula Basseley Nakoula to justice. Charles Woods, the father of a Navy SEAL killed in Benghazi, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told him when his son’s body returned to Andrews Air Force Base: ‘We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.' Lo and behold, Nakoula was brought in for questioning by five Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies at midnight, eventually arrested and held without bond, and finally thrown into jail for a year. He sits in La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution in Texas right now, even as the deceptive spin that blamed his video for the Benghazi attack looks more egregious by the day.”
 
170) Oversaw IRS whose employees illegally targeted conservative groups

In May 2013, the Washington Post reported that the IRS had illegally targeted conservative groups for additional reviews. Organizations with the words “tea party” or “patriot” were singled out for harassment, such as requiring them to provide a list of donors, details about their internet postings on social networking websites, and information about their family members.

When this was first reported by the media in May 2013, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that had conducted these illegal activities, claimed that only low level employees had known about it, and that no high level IRS officials had known about it.

However, soon afterward, NPR reported that an Inspector General report showed that Lerner had been lying, and that she herself had actually been aware of it since June 29, 2011.

Even worse, during March and April of 2012, Lerner herself had actually written such letters to fifteen different conservative groups.

While testifying in May 2013, Lerner said, “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.” However, afterward, she invoked her fifth amendment right to remain silent. The Washington Post reported that there was disagreement as to whether or not Lerner’s statement constituted a waiving of her fifth amendment right to remain silent. Soon afterward, she was placed on paid administrative leave. At a later hearing in March 2014, Lerner again invoked her fifth amendment right to remain silent.

In September 2013, a House committee released several of Lerner’s emails, which showed that she had targeted tea party groups, and that she had asked that their applications be delayed. In one of the emails from 2011, she had written “Tea Party Matter very dangerous.”

In September 2013, after having been on paid leave for four months, Lerner had still not been fired by Obama.

In October 2013, it was reported that newly discovered emails proved that Lerner had violated federal law by giving the Federal Election Commission confidential tax information of several Tea party groups.

The Washington Post reported that IRS officials at the IRS headquarters in Washington D.C. had sent such letters to conservatives groups. Reuters reported that higher level IRS officials had taken part in discussions about it as early as August 2011. However, 21 months later, on May 10, 2013, the Washington Post reported that President Obama had not done anything to investigate or fire the IRS employees who had engaged in this illegal harassment. As of May 14, 2013, none of the IRS employees who engaged in any of this illegal behavior had been disciplined, despite the fact that higher level IRS officials had known about their illegal behavior at least since August 2011. Despite all of these media reports about the involvement of high level IRS officials, in February 2014, Obama said that these things had come from “a local office.”

On May 15, 2013, it was reported that Steven Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, had resigned. However, it was also reported that his assignment would have ended in early June anyway. He resigned – Obama did not fire him.

The IRS gave out confidential information about conservative groups. ProPublica wrote: “The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year. In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups. Nine of those applications had not yet been approved—meaning they were not supposed to be made public.”

“No unapproved applications from liberal groups were sent to ProPublica.”

President Obama either lied about when he first knew about this – or was too busy playing golf and attending fundraisers to read the memos that were sent to him. The Daily Caller wrote:

“White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a press conference Tuesday that the White House was notified about the IRS targeting tea party groups ‘several weeks ago.’ This comes a day after President Obama said he found out about it from news reports on Friday of last week.”

“During a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday, President Obama was asked about the IRS scandal. He responded, ‘I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this. I think it was on Friday.’ ”

“However, Carney said Tuesday that first a report had to be compiled by the IRS’s inspector general and then when it was completed, it was passed on to the administration.”

“‘A notification is appropriate and routine and that is what happened and that happened several weeks ago,’ Carney said.”

When Media Trackers, a conservative organization, applied to the IRS for non-profit status, after waiting 16 months, it got no response. But when it reapplied with a liberal sounding name, it got approval in just three weeks. Yahoo wrote:

“In May 2011, Drew Ryun, a conservative activist and former Republican National Committee staffer, began filling out the Internal Revenue Service application to achieve nonprofit status for a new conservative watchdog group.”

“When September 2012 arrived with still no word from the IRS, Ryun determined that Media Trackers would likely never obtain standalone nonprofit status, and he tried a new approach: He applied for permanent nonprofit status for a separate group called Greenhouse Solutions, a pre-existing organization that was reaching the end of its determination period.”

“The IRS approved Greenhouse Solutions’ request for permanent nonprofit status in three weeks.”

Politico reported: “The same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for tax-exempt status.”

“The trouble for the Israel-focused groups seems to have had different origins than that experienced by conservative groups, but at times the effort seems to have been equally ham-handed.”

The IRS asked conservative groups what books they were reading.

Although the IRS went 18 months or longer without responding to conservative organizations’ applications, the IRS demanded that these same organizations answer the IRS’s intrusive questions within a few weeks.

After the Waco Tea Party sent an application to the IRS, the IRS waited 19 months to respond. In its response, the IRS asked for printouts of its web page and social networking sites, copies of all of its newsletters, bulletins and fliers, and copies of all stories written about it. The IRS also asked for transcripts of its radio interviews.

As one example of how the IRS treated conservative organizations differently from liberal ones, Politico reported:

“Chris Littleton, one of the co-founders of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, said the group got a grilling from the IRS when it submitted its application, in letters the group has posted on its website. The IRS also gave him so much grief when he tried to apply for tax-exempt status for another group, American Junto, that ‘we just gave up on it,’ he said.”

“But when he submitted an application for a third group — Ohioans for Health Care Freedom, now renamed Ohio Rising — ‘it went through just fine,’ Littleton said. ‘They never asked a single set of questions.'”

After the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots sent in their application, it took two years for the IRS to respond. The IRS response included 35 questions. When the group’s cofounder called the IRS, the IRS agent claimed that he had their group’s file right in front of him. But when the group’s confounder asked the IRS agent a question, the IRS agent asked, “What’s your group’s name again?”

Tea Party groups who spoke with each other said they were all getting the same questions from the IRS.

The Washington Post reported that some IRS employees were “ignorant about tax laws, defiant of their supervisors, and blind to the appearance of impropriety.”

In 2012, the IRS leaked confidential information about Mitt Romney to the co-chairman of President Obama’s re-election committee.

For a 27 month period that began in February 2010, the IRS gave exactly zero approvals to Tea Party organizations that had sent in applications. During that same time period, numerous liberal organizations with names including words such as “progress” or “progressive” did get approval.

After True the Vote, a conservative organization which was founded by Catherine Engelbrecht, sent its application to the IRS, the IRS went three years without responding. During that three year period, Engelbrecht and her family’s small manufacturing business were audited by the IRS, and were investigated by OSHA, the ATF, and the FBI.

Democratic U.S. Senators pressured the IRS to target conservative groups. In May 2013, U.S. News & World Report wrote:

“Over the last three years, Democratic senators repeatedly and publicly pressured the IRS to engage in the very activities that they are only now condemning today. At the same time, Republicans repeatedly and publicly warned against this abuse of government power and pointed to a series of red flags that strongly suggested conservative political organizations were being targeted by the IRS. Those warnings were deliberately ignored by the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress.”

“From Max Baucus to Chuck Schumer to Jeanne Shaheen, key Senate Democrats publicly pressured the IRS to target groups that held differing political views and who, in their view, had the temerity to engage in the political process. The IRS listened to them and acted.”

In order to get approval, the IRS required members of Coalition for Life of Iowa, a pro-life organization, to sign a promise to avoid protesting in front of Planned Parenthood.

The IRS asked Christian Voices for Life, a pro-life organization, questions about its prayer vigils.

According to the official White House visitor’s log, during Obama’s first four years as President, IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman made 157 visits to the White House. This is more visits to the White House – by a very large margin – than any other cabinet member during Obama’s first term. By comparison, during the four years that Mark Everson was IRS commissioner when Bush was president, Everson made only one visit to the White House.

Shulman donated $500 to the Democratic National Committee in October 2004.

During Congressional testimony that had taken place in March 2012, Shulman falsely said that the IRS had not targeted conservative groups.

Shulman’s wife, Susan L. Anderson, is the senior program advisor for Public Campaign, a liberal organization. The Dailer Caller wrote of this group:

Public Campaign receives “major funding” from the pro-Obamacare alliance Health Care for America NOW!, which is comprised of the labor unions AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU, and the progressive activist organization Move On, among others.

Public Campaign also receives funding from the liberal Ford Foundation, the Common Cause Education Fund, and Barbra Streisand’s The Streisand Foundation, among other foundations and private donors.

Stephen Seok was one of the IRS agents who wrote threatening letters to conservative groups. After doing so, he was given a promotion.

In June 2013, it was reported that two IRS employees had violated government ethics rules at a 2010 conference when they received $1,100 in free food and other items. One of them was Fred Schindler, the director of implementation oversight at the IRS Affordable Care Act office. The other was Donald Toda, a California-based employee. Obama did not fire them. Instead, he gave both of them paid leave. By comparison, in 1981, President Reagan fired 11,359 air-traffic controllers who had been illegally striking.

In June 2013, it was reported that The National Organization for Marriage, a conservative organization, had forensic evidence which proved that its donors’ private information had been illegally leaked by the IRS. The IRS employees who illegally leaked this private information could get five years in prison. However, Obama refused to file any charges against these IRS criminals.

The IRS illegally leaked the private information of Christine O’Donnell the same day that she announced that she would run for U.S. Senate as a tea party candidate.

According to White House visitor logs, Obama met with Colleen Kelley, the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, on March 31, 2010. The very next day, IRS employees who belonged to that union union started to target tea party organizations.

In July 2013, it was reported that Obama had met with a key IRS official who was involved in the targeting just two days before the key official had told his colleagues how to target tea party groups. The Daily Caller reported:

The Obama appointee implicated in congressional testimony in the IRS targeting scandal met with President Obama in the White House two days before offering his colleagues a new set of advice on how to scrutinize tea party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, who was named in House Oversight testimony by retiring IRS agent Carter Hull as one of his supervisors in the improper targeting of conservative groups, met with Obama in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 23, 2012. Wilkins’ boss, then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, visited the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 24, 2012, according to White House visitor logs.

On April 25, 2012, Wilkins’ office sent the exempt organizations determinations unit “additional comments on the draft guidance” for approving or denying tea party tax-exempt applications, according to the IRS inspector general’s report.

Jon Stewart said of this:

“Well, congratulations, President Barack Obama. Conspiracy theorists who generally can survive in anaerobic environments have just had an algae bloom dropped on their f***ing heads, thus removing the last arrow in your pro-governance quiver: skepticism about your opponents.”

Michael Macleod-Ball, chief of staff at the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, said of this:

“Even the appearance of playing partisan politics with the tax code is about as constitutionally troubling as it gets. With the recent push to grant federal agencies broad new powers to mandate donor disclosure for advocacy groups on both the left and the right, there must be clear checks in place to prevent this from ever happening again.”

In January 2014, it was reported that the Obama administration had chosen Barbara Kay Bosserman to head the investigation of the IRS’s targeting of tea party groups. Bosserman had donated more than $6,000 to Obama’s two presidential campaigns.

In January 2014, it was reported that since Sarah Palin had announced her candidacy for vice-President in 2008, the IRS had harassed her father six different times. Prior to that, the IRS had never contacted him during the 50 years that he had worked. The report did not specify how many of these six incidents happened under President Bush, or how many happened under President Obama.

In January 2014, it was reported that during the FBI’s so-called “investigation” of the IRS’s harassment of tea party groups, the FBI had not actually interviewed any tea party groups.

In January 2014, it was reported that the IRS had demanded that Friends of Abe (a conservative organization whose members work in the entertainment industry) give the IRS enhanced access to its security protected website (which included its secret membership list), even though such a demand was not standard IRS procedure. In addition, even though the organization had applied to the IRS for tax free status two years earlier, the IRS had still not made a decision regarding the application.

In February 2014, Obama said that there was “not even a smidgeon of corruption” in the IRS’s actions.

In February 2014, it was reported that during Obama’s presidency, 100% of the established 501(c)(4) groups that had been audited by the IRS were conservative.

In February 2014, when Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly asked Obama about the IRS harassment of tea party groups, Obama said “These kinds of things keep on surfacing, in part because you and your TV station will promote them.”

In May 2014, it was reported that tea party donors had been audited by the IRS at ten times the rate of the general population.

In June 2014, the IRS claimed that Lerner’s emails to outside agencies from January 2009 through April 2011 had been “lost” when her hard drive “crashed.”

Also in June 2014, the IRS claimed to have “lost” the emails from six additional IRS employees who were relevant to this scandal when their hard drives “crashed.”

One of these IRS employees was Nikole Flax, who had been chief of staff to former IRS commissioner Steven Miller. Flax had made 31 visits to the White House during the time that the IRS had been targeting tea party groups. However, a private company called Sonasoft had a contract with the IRS since 2005 to back up all of the IRS’s emails. The company keeps multiple and redundant backup copies of all the IRS’s emails. The company advertised itself by saying “If the IRS uses Sonasoft products to back up their servers why wouldn’t you choose them to protect your servers?” In addition, Norman Cillo, an Army veteran who had worked in intelligence, and who had also worked as a program manager at Microsoft, listed six reasons why the IRS’s claim about “losing” the emails must be false. Also, federal law requires the IRS to keep permanent, backup copies of all of its emails at an external location. And finally, the NSA has copies of all of the emails.
 
171) Spent $402,721 on underwear that detects the presence of cigarette smoke

In May 2013, it was reported that the Obama administration had spent $402,721 on underwear that detects the presence of cigarette smoke.

172) Rewarded one of his biggest campaign fundraisers by nominating him for the ambassadorship to Canada

In April 2013, it was reported that Obama had nominated Bruce Heyman to be the ambassador to Canada. During Obama’s election campaign, Heyman had raised more than $1 million for Obama.

173) Hired a retarded man to sell illegal drugs and guns, and then arrested him for doing so

In April 2013, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:

“ATF agents running an undercover storefront in Milwaukee used a brain-damaged man with a low IQ to set up gun and drug deals, paying him in cigarettes, merchandise and money, according to federal documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel.”

“For more than six months, federal agents relied on Chauncey Wright to promote ‘Fearless Distributing’ by handing out fliers as he rode his bike around town recommending the store to friends, family and strangers, according to federal prosecutors and family members.”

“Wright, unaware that the store was an undercover operation being run by agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also stocked shelves with shoes, clothing, drug paraphernalia and auto parts, according to his family.”

“Once authorities shut down the operation, they charged the 28-year-old man with federal gun and drug counts.”

“Wright’s IQ measures in the 50s, about half of a normal IQ, according to those familiar with him. Wright’s score is classified as mildly or moderately disabled, depending on the IQ scale used.”
 
174) Secretly obtained phone records from Associated Press reporters and editors

In May 2013, Associated Press reported: "The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news."

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of calls.

In all, the government seized the records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices where phone records were targeted, on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s news-gathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said.

Soon afterward, it was reported that obtaining these phone records had required approval from Eric Holder, Obama’s Attorney General.

This has had a very dangerous and harmful effect on the media’s ability to report the news. In June 2013, Gary Pruitt, the president and chief executive of Associated Press, said: “Some longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking with us… In some cases, government employees we once checked in with regularly will no longer speak to us by phone. Others are reluctant to meet in person … This chilling effect on news-gathering is not just limited to AP. Journalists from other news organizations have personally told me that it has intimidated both official and nonofficial sources from speaking to them as well.”

175) Asked contractors to disclose their political donations before bidding on government contracts

In April 2011, Obama asked contractors to disclose their political donations before bidding on government contracts.
 
176) Tried to deport German family that had fled Germany over Hitler’s ban on homeschooling

In Germany in 1938, Adolf Hitler outlawed homeschooling. He said “Give me a child when he’s seven and he’s mine forever.”

Hitler’s ban on homeschooling is still in effect today. In 2006, Katharina Plett was arrested for homeschooling her own children. Her husband and their children fled the country. In 2008, Juergen and Rosemary Dudek were sentenced to 90 days in jail for homeschooling their own children.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their homeschooled children fled Germany after the police showed up at their house to enforce Germany’s ban on homeschooling. They came to the United States in 2010 and were granted political asylum, which gave them legal permission to live in the U.S. as political refugees However, in March 2013, the Obama administration argued in federal court in favor of deporting them and sending them back to Germany. This means that Obama does not consider them to be political refugees, and that he does not consider Germany’s policy of jailing homeschooling parents to be a form of persecution.

177) Said, “We’re gonna punish our enemies, and we’re gonna reward our friends”

Obama said “If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies, and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us’ — if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election — then I think it’s going to be harder. And that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2nd.”

This is a rare instance of a promise that Obama actually kept instead of broke. A huge number of the things on this list can be explained by that one simple sentence.
 
178) Falsely accused a law abiding news reporter of being “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation

James Rosen is a law abiding reporter for Fox News. However, the Obama administration falsely labeled him as “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation when it applied for a warrant to read his emails.

The New York Times wrote of this:

With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.

Leak investigations usually focus on the source, not the reporter. But, in this case, federal prosecutors also asked a federal judge for permission to examine Mr. Rosen’s personal e-mails, arguing that “there is probable cause to believe” Mr. Rosen is “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator” in the leak.

Though Mr. Rosen was not charged, the F.B.I. request for his e-mail account was granted secretly in late May 2010. The government was allowed to rummage through Mr. Rosen’s e-mails for at least 30 days.

Michael Clemente, the executive vice president of Fox News, said on Monday that it was “downright chilling” that Mr. Rosen “was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter.” Bruce Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, added on Tuesday that treating “routine news-gathering efforts as evidence of criminality is extremely troubling and corrodes time-honored understandings between the public and the government about the role of the free press.”

Obama administration officials often talk about the balance between protecting secrets and protecting the constitutional rights of a free press. Accusing a reporter of being a “co-conspirator”… shows a heavy tilt toward secrecy and insufficient concern about a free press.

The Washington Post wrote of this: "The Rosen affair is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of. To treat a reporter as a criminal for doing his job — seeking out information the government doesn’t want made public — deprives Americans of the First Amendment freedom on which all other constitutional rights are based. Guns? Privacy? Due process? Equal protection? If you can’t speak out, you can’t defend those rights, either.

Beyond that, the administration’s actions shatter the president’s credibility and discourage allies who would otherwise defend the administration against bogus accusations such as those involving the Benghazi “talking points.”

If the administration is spying on reporters and accusing them of criminality just for asking questions — well, who knows what else this crowd is capable of doing?

Ann E. Marimow, who broke the Rosen story, obtained the affidavit by FBI agent Reginald Reyes seeking access to Rosen’s private e-mails. In the affidavit, Reyes stated that “there is probable cause to believe that the reporter has committed or is committing a violation” of the law against national security leaks. The affidavit detailed how the FBI had monitored Rosen’s comings and goings from the State Department and tracked his various phone calls with the suspected leaker, analyst Stephen Jin-Woo Kim.

Rosen’s supposed crime? Reyes got his evidence from an e-mail from the reporter: “I want to report authoritatively, and ahead of my competitors, on new initiatives or shifts in U.S. policy, events on the ground in [North Korea], what intelligence is picking up, etc. . . .

I’d love to see some internal State Department analyses. In short: Let’s break some news, and expose muddle-headed policy when we see it, or force the administration’s hand to go in the right direction, if possible.”

That is indeed compelling evidence — of good journalism.

Obama established an ominous precedent.
 
179) Let Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate himself for lying under oath

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath. He said that he had nothing to do with monitoring the emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen. But it turns out that it was Holder’s own signature on the search warrant.

Even the liberal Huffington Post said that Holder should be fired over this.

Holder could have gotten five years in prison.

So, did Obama fire Holder?

Of course not!

Instead, Obama asked that Holder be investigated – not by an independent investigating committee – but by Holder himself!
 
180) Used Obamacare to illegally give the IRS additional powers without approval from Congress

In May 2013 the Washington Post wrote: "The law allows the Department of Health and Human Services to set up federal health exchanges in the holdout states. But the statute makes no mention of the IRS providing credits and subsidies through federal exchanges.

The IRS resolved this conundrum by denying its existence. In a May 2012 regulatory ruling, it asserted its own right to provide credits outside the state exchanges as the reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous law. But the language of the law is not ambiguous. And health scholars Jonathan Adler and Michael Cannon, in an exhaustive recent analysis, find no justification for the IRS’s ruling in the legislative history of Obamacare. “The statute,” they argue, “and the lack of any support for the IRS rule in the legislative record put defenders of the IRS rule in the awkward position of arguing that it was so obviously Congress’ intent to offer tax credits in federal exchanges that despite a year of debate over the PPACA, it never occurred to anyone to express that intent out loud. A better explanation is that the PPACA’s authors miscalculated when they assumed states would establish exchanges.”

So: The IRS seized the authority to spend about $800 billion over 10 years on benefits that were not authorized by Congress. And theIRS scandal put this decision in a new light. What was the role of politics in shaping this regulatory decision? What pressure was applied?
 
181) Used environmental regulations to shut down an ambulance while it was taking a patient to the hospital

In May 2013 the Washington Post reported: "A Wednesday shootout on the streets of Washington Highlands left a cop injured and a carjacking suspect dead. But before the suspect expired, he went on an unusual ambulance ride that involved moving him from one vehicle to another on the shoulder of Interstate 295. While this might appear to be another story of Fire and Emergency Medical Services dysfunction, the story is rather more complicated. As WUSA-TV explains, newer-model diesel engines are required by federal regulations to have emission-control features that, in some circumstances, require the motor to shut down for “regeneration” — a process in which the exhaust system burns off trapped soot. The need for regeneration can be unpredictable. The transfer to a second ambulance delayed 34-year-old Nathaniel McRae’s arrival at a hospital by seven minutes. FEMS insists the wait did not play a role in his death".
 
182) Had “a serious management problem” with his refusal to fire bad workers

A 2011 USA Today article on federal employees states: “The federal government fired 0.55% of its workers in the budget year that ended Sept. 30 — 11,668 employees in its 2.1 million workforce. White-collar federal workers have almost total job security after a few years on the job. Last year, the government fired none of its 3,000 meteorologists, 2,500 health insurance administrators, 1,000 optometrists, 800 historians or 500 industrial property managers.”

Wow! Those must be excellent workers, right?

Actually, no. The article also says: "“San Francisco State University management professor John Sullivan, an expert on employee turnover, says the low departure rates show a failure to release poor performers and those with obsolete skills. ‘Rather than indicating something positive, rates below 1% in the firing and layoff components would indicate a serious management problem,’ he says.”

A serious management problem?

So who exactly was the highest ranking manager of the federal government?

It was Obama.
 
183) Illegally solicited donations from health insurers

In May 2013, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius solicited donations from health insurers to help pay for Obamacare. Such soliciting is illegal.

184) Chose an economic advisor who wanted roads and bridges to be built by unqualified workers

Obama chose to have Robert Reich be his economic advisor. Regarding Obama’s “stimulus,” Reich said:

“I am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people… And therefore, in my remarks I have suggested to you, and I’m certainly happy to talk about it more, ways in which the money can be — criteria can be set so that they money does go to others… people who are not necessarily construction workers or high-skilled professionals.”

185) Pressured unions to reduce the amount of health insurance coverage for their employees

In May 2013, the New York Times reported: "Say goodbye to that $500 deductible insurance plan and the $20 co-payment for a doctor’s office visit. They are likely to become luxuries of the past.

Expect to have your blood pressure checked or a prescription filled at a clinic at your office, rather than by your private doctor? Then blame the so-called Cadillac tax, which penalizes companies that offer high-end health care plans to their employees.

Although the tax does not start until 2018, employers say they have to start now to meet the deadline and they are doing whatever they can to bring down the cost of their plans. Under the law, an employer or health insurer offering a plan that costs more than $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family would typically pay a 40 percent excise tax on the amount exceeding the threshold.

Tom Leibfried, a legislative director for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., one of the unions whose plans were vulnerable to the tax, says the demand that workers pay more for their care is a perennial aspect of labor negotiations. “We’re very concerned about the hollowing out of benefits in general,” he said. “What the excise tax will do is just fuel that.”
 
186) Falsely said “We believe in the free market”

In June 2013, Obama said, "We don’t think that top-down solutions are the right way to go. We believe in the free market. We believe in a light touch when it comes to regulations. We believe in the free market.”

Obama was lying. The free market means that in the business world, it is the customers, not the government, who pick winners and losers. But this list contains a huge number of instances where Obama tried to use the government to pick winners and losers in the business world.
 
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