Tempers Flare at IRS Hearing

A heated argument erupted Thursday at a hearing on the IRS, with Democrats and Republicans trading charges about the work of the Oversight Committee.

Two Democrats on the panel accused their GOP colleagues of repeatedly holding hearings on the IRS for political reasons.

In his opening statement, Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) complained that the hearing was the 23rd held about the IRS in recent years.

“Unfortunately, Republicans have become obsessed with investigating any and every allegation relating to the IRS, no matter how small,” he said.

He said Republicans are frustrated that they have never found proof that the White House conspired with the IRS to target conservative groups or shown that any IRS employee destroyed evidence during the investigation.

“The problem now is that our committee is in a mindset where we are just trying to get the IRS,” Cummings said.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.), chairman of the Oversight subcommittee on administrative rules, fired back.

“We’re not trying to get the IRS. The IRS was trying to get conservative Americans who were exercising their First Amendment, free speech right,” he said. “Twenty-three hearings is a pretty small price to pay when you’re trying to protect fundamental liberties in the Constitution, for goodness sake.”

Jordan said the hearings are warranted because the IRS has engaged in a pattern of destroying records and documents.

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