IRS tracked taxpayers’ political affiliation

[elehhhhna]

WASHINGTON – As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the IRS, said the practice was an “outrageous violation of the public trust” that could undermine the agency’s credibility.

IRS officials acknowledged that party affiliation information was routinely collected by a vendor for several months...

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/5440902p-4912739c.html
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[bluestateguy]

1. It's easy to do

Both parties have huge computer databases, with information about party affilliation, professional status, political activism, even magazine subscriptions. It can be easily passed on to the IRS.

[elehhhhna]

2. True, but WHY?

[Fla Dem]

3. I'm not reading this as political parties collecting this info, but the

IRS collecting it when they are investigating taxpayers. For which I have to ask WHY???? And what comes first, finding out their political affiliation, or the tax delinquency?

"According to Murray’s office, the 20 states in which the IRS collected party affiliation information were Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin."

"IRS officials acknowledged that party affiliation information was routinely collected by a vendor for several months. They told the vendor last month to screen the information out."

Sure, once somebody outed them. This is all beginning to sound very Nixonian.

[sallyseven]

4. Enemies list what else?