“We Have No Alibi. Let’s Blame Bush!” Said Democrats Always…

With a very weak accusation that Doug Shulman of the IRS was a Bush appointee, Nancy Pelosi single handedly created the new and only talking point for the sinking Obama ship and its corrupt crew.

Dear sweet Nancy, and all of your equally delightful Democrat cronies, blaming Bush is passé and it doesn’t work anymore. In case you hadn’t noticed there is a new President in office. He has been there almost 5 years. Anything that happens now is his fault! It is his job to know what is going on, ferret out problems and find solutions. He is paid quite generously to do just that. Yet, somehow everything seems to be above his “pay grade” and his one and only solution is to blame Bush. That is neither creative nor helpful.

Now, if you really feel the need to point to Doug Shulman as a Bush appointee (who was also confirmed by the entire US Senate), fine, Shulman is also a Democrat who attended prestigious liberal universities such as Williams College, Georgetown and Harvard. He is a known generous donor to Democrat causes. He also, as recently as June of 2012, defended the new health care law to House Republicans, even stating “ the main IRS role would be gathering information from taxpayers and insurance companies, no more of a burden than obtaining investment information from brokerage houses on a taxpayer’s investments.”  Democrats defended Shulman and the IRS at the time, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. said, “I like the can-do attitude.”  He went on to say, “This is a considerable undertaking for the IRS. Experts from the Government Accountability Office, the inspector general’s office and the National Taxpayer Advocate have reviewed IRS efforts to date, and they have concluded that the IRS is on the right track to successfully implement the law.”  Hmm, the IRS “ is on the right track”? Yes, I guess if you are a Democrat and the IRS is doing your bidding, you might consider that to be the right track.

The only thing the Bush appointment proves is that Bush was indeed a team player who was willing to reach out across party lines. Bush defined bi-partisan. He actually did what Obama claimed his administration would do. Unfortunately for Bush, being willing to appoint Democrats as well as Republicans only bit him in the proverbial butt. His ability to work well with everyone, welcome opposing ideas and create a true culture of diversity only caused him to be vilified by the left.

Any future Republican presidents should take heed and learn from Bush’s mistake:  never work with a Democrat.  They will screw everything up and then blame you for hiring them…

What I find more interesting than his appointment by Bush is his connection with Timothy Geithner.  Geithner, his supervisor and the Treasury secretary, praised Mr. Shulman’s efforts, saying that he “has helped make the nation’s tax system more fair, efficient and effective.” Fair, efficient and effective? That is another interesting description of the IRS under this administration and with direction from Doug Shulman. I am willing to bet the groups and individuals who were targeted by the IRS simply for their conservative affiliations would beg to differ. Why does Geithner praise Shulman? Maybe it has something to do with his connection to Barack Obama. Geithner, Obama and Shulman began working together in 2009.

“Now, for years”, Obama said, “we’ve talked about stopping Americans from illegally hiding their money overseas, and getting tough with the financial institutions that let them get away with it.  The Treasury Department and the IRS, under Secretary Geithner’s leadership and Commissioner Shulman’s, are already taking far-reaching steps to catch overseas tax cheats — but they need more support.”

On May 4, 2009, Obama talked about international tax policy reform in the Grand Foyer with Tim Geithner and Doug Shulman by his side.  Then on April 17 2012, Mr. Geithner issued a proposed rule that forces U.S. banks to be uncompensated tax collectors for foreign governments, causing undue harm and expense to banks, individuals and our economy.

But wait, there’s more…

The Treasury/IRS finalized another rule effective on Jan. 1, 2013–the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. According to the Washington Times back on April 30,2012:

“It is all about power for a few in Washington and their foreign bureaucrat cronies. The failure to do what any responsible person would do – by looking at the real and potential resulting harm – constitutes willful negligence. If Mr. Geithner or IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman were in the private sector, they clearly could be indicted and probably convicted because of both the monetary damage and risk to individual lives these rules promulgated by them are causing and will cause.”

These efforts were highly lauded by president Obama. Obama may claim that he doesn’t know anything that goes on in the IRS and that he “only hears about it on the news” but he had a much different stance in 2009 when he said, “In other words, we’re beginning to restore fairness and balance to our tax code.  That’s what I promised I would do during the campaign, that’s what I’m committed to doing as President, and that is what I will work with members of my administration and members of Congress to accomplish in the months and years to come.” (Obama said this on May 4, 2009, flanked on either side by Geithner and Schulman.)

There is a closely-knit connection between Obama, Geithner and Shulman. They have collaborated together on numerous occasions to advance Obama’s political agenda. It is not beyond the pale to believe that the IRS was under Barack Obama’s direction and in collusion with him when targeting conservative groups and individuals for political gain. It is however, absurd to blame Bush.