Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which released the video along with the Ways and Means panel. Flickr user Gage Skidmore
About the House Republicans’ New IRS Video
Spokesman says recap of political targeting scandal was produced in-house at no cost to taxpayers.
Among the Internal Revenue Service's many missteps in recent years was spending money to produce comical training videos for use at conferences. So eyebrows were raised this week when, a week before the mid-term election, House Republicans on two committees took to YouTube with their own video “highlighting key events in the IRS targeting scandal.”
There is little new in this recap of President Obama’s criticisms of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United campaign finance decision and hearing testimony about Lois Lerner’s lost emails, produced jointly by the Ways and Means and the Oversight and Government Reform panels. But the forward lean is that Obama administration “stonewalling” means that the controversy is far from a resolution.
“This IRS, this Treasury Department, and this White House have not given Congress the cooperation they promised,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the oversight panel. “This new presentation should remind Americans that this is not over: the House of Representatives continues our investigation, our demand for a credible criminal probe, and to protect the rights of all Americans to participate freely and openly in the political process.”
Asked how much it cost taxpayers to have congressional staff make this video, Oversight spokesman Frederick Hill told Government Executive, “The video was produced entirely in house and did not incur additional expenses.”
(Image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore)