Frist: Tax-returns measure indefensible

[GHOSTDANCER]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday that "accountability will be carried out" against whoever slipped a provision into an omnibus spending bill that would have allowed two committee chairmen to view the tax returns of any American.

"I have no earthly idea how it got in there," Frist said on CBS's "Face The Nation." "Nobody is going to defend this."

The language was caught and removed in the Senate on Saturday, but the House will have to approve the fix before the spending bill can be sent to the White House for President Bush's signature.
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/21/tax.provision/index.html>

What else slipped by them in the past? Don't make me get Michael moore out there in his ice-cream truck again assholes!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. This time he shuold give them lollypops too

[aquart]

2. Yeah, Bill. I totally believe you.

Why would you lie?

[tridim]

3. "I have no earthly idea how it got in there"

Gawd perhaps?

Now we have faith based lawmaking.

[alittlelark]

11. Given that he may not be from earth

he could be teling the truth.

[Nite Owl]

4. The Dems should be out there

screaming about this. Who did it? The Repukes are in charge and they should be held accountable for letting something like this get in there. We shouldn't accept his kind of answer.

[Philostopher]

7. Apparently, there was a good deal of screaming about it

on the Senate floor when the Democratic senator whose pages managed to root it out of the 3,000 page omnibus spending bill it was buried in.

Two hours of hollering, in fact. Byrd, Boxer, Pelosi ... as well as some Republicans who still have some shred of decency.

I followed the comments on it on Eschaton last night -- apparently it ws a real free-for-all for a while.

Still, no GOP member will fess up to having done it, although one of the senators from Oklahoma (Republican, of course) eventually admitted his staffers had added it, if I recall correctly.

Thing is, it was the last session before Thanksgiving and the Republicans refused to remove the language right then and there; the Dems did hold up procedures for a long time, but eventually they got a promise from Cat Killer to remove it after the break, when the senate reconvenes on 12/5.

We'll see how that goes, won't we?

[NVMojo]

13. I agree, where is the yelling from the Dems corner of this mess?

I want Democratic outrage and now!!!!

[T Bone]

17. If a Dem did yell about it, would the corporate whore media cover it ?

Remember in August of 2002 when Tom Daschle said that Bush was seeking Dictatorial Powers in the Patriot Act?

Remember how well the media covered that for night and day? Remember how the corporate media continuously covered Daschles' yelling and screaming about that?

Sure ya do.

[burrowowl]

30. Barbara Boxer

was screaming about it.
But many Dems are too quite. Thank god for Boxer, Kennedy, Byrd and ...
help me here.

[ibegurpard]

34. You won't see it

Not if you're watching CNNFAUXMSNBC.

[yardwork]

5. What else is in this bill? How did we find out about this one?

Somebody must have bragged that they slipped this into the bill. That means that somebody(s) knows who did it.

Just like somebody(s) knows who revealed Valerie Plame's identity to a hack columnist.

[abburdlen]

33. kinda makes you wonder

what else they might have slipped in there huh?

[hatrack]

39. I think somebody on Dorgan's staff picked up on it late at night

During that, what, six-hour period they had to review the 3,000-page bill. :eyes:

[Fovea]

6. So it got through the house?

and it was in the Senate bill?

And that means it went through some sort of reconciliation process, right? This is so disingenuous of the Kat Killer Krew.

[Philostopher]

9. It was a 3,000 page omnibus spending bill.

This tells you how often our representatives from either side of the aisle actually reads a bill carefully, doesn't it?

That's the part that grieves me sorely -- nobody in Congress caught it, and the bill was up for a vote before the pages for one of the Dem senators found it and brought it to him/her.

Disgusting, really, when you think about it -- both that Cat Killer would try something that shady, and that neither Dem nor GOP reps in Congress bothered to read the bill.

[madrchsod]

8. wait a minute they did this before

in another bill...but since i`m so old my mind just doesn`t work as well as some others who by chance were born much later than me.....

[daleo]

10. "I have no earthly idea how it got in there"

Perhaps God wrote these words into the bill. Can't these people think of anything on their own?

On edit - I guess a few people thought of this dodge.

[unblock]

12. "i have no earthly idea how it got OUT there" it was sposed to be hushhush

[noamnety]

14. "accountability will be carried out"

Right. That will be happening right after we're greeting in Iran as liberators.

[OutsourceBush]

15. Rep. Istook, R-Okla. was responsible for the insertion

From Drudge...

Drudge seems to go against the fascist agenda from time to time. He must have not drank the full strength cool-aide. Some fleeting sanity still comes to the surface from time to time.

[OutsourceBush]

22. Istook is a hard right wing Christian "CNP" Nazi (ass-h*le)

http://victorian.fortunecity.com/brambles/499/CNP/GOP_Leaders/gop_leaders.html

[OutsourceBush]

25. Seems like every Nazi action I see lately has CNP fingerprints on it

It is getting too easy to figure.

I just look for this type crap and do a search in yahoo for:

"ass-h*le name here" CNP

The offending Nazi is almost always a CNP member.

[Garbo 2004]

26. Naw, Drudge is just a shit-stirrer and enjoys a good cat/dog fight n/t

[Divernan]

16. Thought you meant the OTHER tax proposals

of Bush re removing tax incentives for businesses to provide health insurance for employees, as well as removing deductions for state and local income tax on individual fed tax returns.
Let's see if Frist defends those vicious changes!

[eleny]

18. No one could have imagined they'd use planes to attack us

It has that familiar ring to it.

[yardwork]

21. THAT'S where I heard it before!

[LiviaOlivia]

19. The evil Delay orc is blaming the IRS

Both TPM and dkos and excellent bits on Istook.

<snip>

Okay, let's try this one more time.

From the Associated Press on Rep. Istook's statement ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4629255,00.html

Istook, chairman of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee, said in a statement Sunday that the Internal Revenue Service drafted the language, which would not have allowed any inspections of tax returns. "Nobody's privacy was ever jeopardized," the statement said.

The actual text Rep. Istook inserted into the bill ...

Hereinafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein.

Abuse of power or poor reading comprehension? We report; you decide.



http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_11_21.php#004086

[Zynx]

23. I approve of the use of the word "Orc" to describe Rethug goons.

[juliagoolia]

35. Its the law even if you don't like it Istook!

Istook, chairman of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee, said in a statement Sunday that the Internal Revenue Service drafted the language, which would not have allowed any inspections of tax returns

Well duh! Thats the way its suppose to be dirtball!
Can't you just see him and Delay with a private little war of Tax returns and favors going on?
Geeeeeeeeesh!

[yellowcanine]

41. "Nobody's privacy was ever jeopardized," - Istook Well, then......

What is all of the fuss about?

"Hereinafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein."

Uh Oh. Looks like Izzy doesn't know the what meaning of "privacy" is.

[buddysmellgood]

20. Heeey, now everybody just calm down. What do you have to hide?

This is just about taxes after all. It's pretty straight forward. If you're paying your fair share, you have nothing to worry about. (sarcasm)

[ibegurpard]

24. I guess someone got a little ahead of themselves

The fascist takeover isn't quite complete enough yet for something like this to make it through.

[DireStrike]

27. ANOTHER article from sunday: How many excuses ARE there?

http://nytimes.com/2004/11/22/politics/22explain.html

Republican leaders said that their motives had been misread and that there was never any intention to invade the privacy of taxpayers. They promised that the provision would be deleted from the bill in a special session on Wednesday before the spending measure, which cleared Congress on Saturday night, was sent to President Bush for his signature.

Representative Ernest Istook, Republican of Oklahoma, who was responsible for the insertion of the tax provision in the 3,000-page, $388 billion legislation that provides financing for most of the government, issued a statement on Sunday saying that the language had actually been drafted by the Internal Revenue Service and that "nobody's privacy was ever jeopardized." Mr. Istook is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that has authority over the I.R.S. budget.

John D. Scofield, the spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, said that the purpose of the provision was to allow investigators for the top lawmakers responsible for financing the I.R.S. to have access to that agency's offices around the country and tax records so they could examine how the money was being spent. There was never any desire to look at anyone's tax returns, he said.

Which one is it? Why didn't Frist know?

[Supersedeas]

36. "accountability"....ah, Mr. Frist musta misspoke or is that one of those

ex--aaaaaggggg--eraaaa-shshshshions (where Frist is saying that he didn't exactly say what he said exactly).

[ohtransplant]

43. Dumbest excuse yet! n/t

[lovuian]

28. Can we have the name of the two who wanted to see the Tax returns

Who would want that power!!!

[OutsourceBush]

29. They wanted that power to stop any good Democrat from running in 2008

I think we will see more and more of this back-door Patriot Act sh*t. They have to get into everyone's records to complete their Christo-Fascist takeover.

[OutsourceBush]

31. kick... this one is still in the news

[struggle4progress]

32. Enough noise when they get caught and they'll back down.

We need good connections between grassroots activists and our friends in Congress.

[Arkana]

37. Uh-huh, right, Bill...

It just ACCIDENTALLY crawled its way onto the bill. Just like the Patriot Act ACCIDENTALLY allows the gubmint to look at your medical records.

Asshole. They got caught, and now they're trying to play innocent.

[Az_lefty]

38. Frist has no earthly idea how he got caught......

:mad:

[yellowcanine]

40. Right Fristy - We believe you. Heh.

[DFWJock]

42. "I have no earthly idea how it got in there."

here kitty kitty.....

[lakeguy]

44. you know, if frist is so on board with this measure being

indefensible, it makes me think there are even worse provisions hidden in the 3500 or so pages. could this just be a smoke screen to cover the really deep shit?