Wyden defends IRS targeting conservative groups

by Shelby Sebens and Dustin Hurst, Northwest Watchdog

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is turning the tables of the IRS scandal from the government taxing authority to the organizations it unfairly targeted.

“If political organizations don’t want to be scrutinized by government they shouldn’t seek privileges like tax free status and donor anonymity,” he said during the Senate Finance Committee’s more than three hour hearing on the IRS scandal.

The IRS is embroiled in a national scandal after revealing that it has targeted tea party and conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for nonprofit, 501(c)4 status.

He also tweeted it, brewing up a firestorm of responses on the social media site.

Wyden is calling for Congress to” close loophole giving incentive for people to choose tax status based on whether they want to hide donors,” according to the official Twitter account of his press office, @WydenPress.

But regardless, the IRS has admitted to targeting conservative groups and a recent poll says the majority of Americans believe the IRS deliberately harassed conservatives.

Tuesday morning, the Senate Finance Committee grilled IRS officials over the agency’s targeting of conservative nonprofit groups. Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden defended the scrutiny.