WSJ's Kim Strassel: Obama using IRS abuse scandal to expand IRS abuse

You didn't really think the attention on IRS abuse of conservative groups - not from the MSM, of course, but from plenty of other sources - would actually result in the stopping of the abuse. Did you? Because that's not how things work in the era of Obama. Now, when a scandal comes to light, the White House takes action - the action being to make the abuse even worse. All in the name of fixing the problem it insists does not exist, of course. The Wall Street Journal's Kim Strassel explains how new IRS rules since the scandal broke have actually subjected conservative groups to more egregious abuse:

About a month after the IRS inspector general released his bombshell report about IRS targeting of conservative groups last May, Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel unveiled a "plan of action" for correcting the mess. One highlight was that targeted groups would be offered a new optional "expedited" process for getting 501(c)(4) status. The deal, which received little public attention, boiled down to this: We'll do our job, the IRS said, if you give up your rights. Those taking part in the "expedited" process had to agree to limit to 40% the amount of spending and time (calculated by employee and volunteers hours) they spend on political activity. Current 501(c)(4) rules allow political spending up to 49%, and have no "time" component. The clear point of the "deal" was to use the lure of 501(c)(4) approval to significantly reduce the political activity of targeted conservative groups going forward. Some groups, desperate to get their tax exemption, took the deal. Others refused to be victimized twice. One of them is the Tea Party Patriots, run by Jenny Beth Martin, who told me that she didn't feel it was right that"every other 501(c)(4) would get to live under a different standard than those of us who had been targeted, and had been waiting for a determination for years." She let the deadline for using the expedited process pass.

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Not long after, the IRS was back hounding the Tea Party Patriots with new requirements. In addition to re-demanding information that Ms. Martin's group had already supplied, the IRS insisted on new details, like the groups' fundraising letters from 2012. Cleta Mitchell, an attorney representing targeted groups, tells me one of her clients suffered the same fate. The IRS called to ask if the group would take part in its expedited process. When it turned down the IRS, the government agency hit the group with new questions about its activities. This all happened last summer. This is not to say the spotlight on the scandal has made no positive difference in certain isolated cases. Ms. Martin herself can testify to that - literally. When her name appeared on a list of witnesses to testify before a House committee investigating IRS abuse - voila - her group's application was suddenly approved. That makes sense, because the Obama Administration's mode of operation is to claim it's making things better while actually making things worse. When real people testify before Congress what they're actual experience has been, the IRS can't have that, so they bring about a resolution in that individual case only to blunt the sting of that person's experience. As Rob told you recently, the IRS is acting in large part at the behest of panicked Democrat senators who fear they will not be re-elected if Tea Party groups are allowed to operate freely this year. As long as the MSM continues to pretend there is no scandal here, they can make such demands with little fear of consequences. But those who are paying attention should understand: In the Orwellian era of Barack Obama, IRS "reforms" are making things worse. And that's by design.