Posts

Rep. Darrell Issa: Kathleen Sebelius Should Be Fired

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Examiner File/Graeme JenningsAdding his voice to the growing chorus of lawmakers calling for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to step down in the wake of Obamacare’s clunky rollout, Rep. Darrell Issa on Sunday questioned why she continues to stay on.

“The president has been poorly served in the implementation of his own legislation,” Issa, R-Calif., said in an interview on CBS. “If somebody doesn’t leave … then he’s missing the point of Management 101, which is these people are there to serve him well, and they haven’t.”

Issa called on Sebelius to step down voluntarily.

Read more from this story HERE.

Issa: Any Deal Must Address ‘The Excesses That Need to Be Reined In’

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP“I look forward to the government reopening and getting back to really dealing with entitlements and with waste in government,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday evening.

Asked if House Republicans would approve a deal that excludes Obamacare, Issa said they need to vote for something that deals with entitlements and “the excesses that need to be reined in.

“That’s what sequestration was about, even though it was a bad solution,” Issa said. So I think as long as we’re dealing with entitlements, Obamacare being an entitlement, but there’s a lot of other entitlements and a lot of waste in government that we keep showing, but not dealing with.”

The deal shaping up in the Senate reportedly would fund the government through January 15, raise the nation’s debt limit through Feb. 15, and have House and Senate Budget Committee conferees try to work out their spending differences by the end of the year.

“If that’s the deal, are you ready to go along with it?” Blitzer asked Issa.

Read more from this story HERE.

Issa: ‘There’s a Reason to Fear’ Obama Agencies (+videos)

/13 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APRepublican California Rep. Darrell Issa, the GOP’s top government watchdog, warns that we have entered a time to “love my country, fear my government.”

“Right now, there’s a reason to fear the IRS and other agencies, including the EPA, who are loaded with people who feel empowered to bend the rules against those they disagree with,” the California Republican explained.

Issa has been investigating the Internal Revenue Service since Lois Lerner’s May 2013 admission that the agency treated conservative groups differently, and his Sept. 17 committee report details the committee’s progress and findings to date.


____

Read more from this story HERE.

Issa: Benghazi Attack Result of Hillary Clinton’s Reckless, Ill-Advised ‘War on Terror’ Policies (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Chris MaddaloniResponsibility for the September 11 Benghazi assault and the deaths of four U.S. citizens — including Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens — lies personally at the feet of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.

“The investigation really is now not about what we know, but about how we can prevent abuse of security before the fact, how we respond during the fact, and how we hold people accountable after the fact for deliberate misinformation — if you want to be kind — [and] outright lies, if not,” said Issa, who serves as head of the Oversight and Government reform committee.

Read more from this story HERE.

Darrell Issa Subpoenas Treasury Department Over Auto Bailout Documents

/2 Comments/in , /by

Claiming that it has turned over “only a fraction” of the requested documents, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent a subpoena today to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew regarding the 2009 taxpayer-funded $50 billion bailout of General Motors.

“Taxpayers deserve the full truth about how decisions were made to use their money in an Administration effort that resulted in protecting generous pensions for unionized Delphi employees while greatly diminishing benefits for non-unionized employees,” Issa said in the letter. The chairman has been investigating the matter since 2010.

For over a year, Treasury has slow-walked his document requests, he claimed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scandal Watch: Issa Expands IRS Targeting Investigation to FEC

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHall Did officials at the Federal Election Commission collude with the IRS to unfairly target and abuse conservative groups? National Review drew attention to this potential angle last week, and now the House Oversight Committee is on the case. A “phony scandal” creeps closer to another federal agency, and CNN has the report:

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa demanded Wednesday that the Federal Election Commission turn over records of more than five years of communications with the Internal Revenue Service — a move that significantly expands the California Republican’s ongoing probe of alleged federal targeting of conservative groups. In a letter to FEC Chairman Ellen Weintraub — a Democrat — Issa cited CNN reporting on Monday that raises “the prospect of inappropriate coordination between the IRS and the FEC about tax-exempt entities.” Among other things, Issa asked for records of all communications between the IRS and the FEC dating back to the start of 2008. He also requested records of any FEC discussions relating to tax-exempt applications or organizations since 2008.

[Issa’s] letter came after Don McGahn, the vice chairman of the FEC and a Republican, told CNN that he saw an e-mail from an FEC investigator to Lois Lerner, the former head of the IRS division responsible for reviewing applications from various groups for tax-exempt status. The investigator asked Lerner, herself a former FEC employee, to discuss the status of the American Future Fund, a conservative political advocacy group. McGahn noted that after Lerner was contacted, the IRS sent a questionnaire to the American Future Fund. Lerner, the figure at the center of the congressional investigation into alleged IRS targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when called to testify before Issa’s panel in May. “Dealing with Lois Lerner is probably out of the ordinary,” McGahn said, stressing that FEC commissioners had not given their staffers permission to reach out to the IRS on the matter, a step typically required for such inquiries.

Read more from this story HERE.

Darrell Issa Subpoenas Treasury for More Docs on IRS Targeting (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Graem JenningsAfter a tense exchange with Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel Friday, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa sent a subpoena to the Treasury Department Friday demanding more documents and accusing the agency’s chief counsel’s office of being “compromised.”

Issa, R-Calif., accused the Internal Revenue Service of dragging its feet in responding to the committee’s demand for documents related to IRS targeting of conservative groups — a charge Werfel denied.

During an Oversight subcommittee hearing, an agitated Issa said the IRS is “slow-rolling us.”

“That’s not true,” Werfel countered.

But Issa persisted, saying he would go over Werfel’s head and ask his boss, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, to respond to his requests.

“I’ve asked you for information; you’re not forthcoming,” Issa told Werfel. “The office of chief counsel, a politically appointed office, has been compromised.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Darrell Issa Reveals Yet Another Potential Obama Administration Scandal: That’s ‘Against the Law’

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The BlazeU.S. Department of Energy (DOE) officials ordered subordinates not to talk to congressional investigators about their investigation into illicit hiring practices and related whistleblower retaliation allegations, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darell Issa (R-Calif.).

Issa, in a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, revealed that the deputy secretary of energy issued a gag order following the release of a highly critical inspector general report last week.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a division of the DOE, allegedly violated DOE hiring guidelines in a manner than disadvantaged military veterans, according to the scathing IG report.

The BPA employees who cooperated with the IG’s investigation were fired, suspended or disciplined in other ways, the report found.

Further, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman “verbally instructed Elliot Mainzer, the individual [Poneman] chose to serve as acting administrator of BPA, that no BPA employees were to talk with anyone regarding these allegations, including congressional investigators,” Issa wrote in a July 17 letter.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fox News Says Rep. Issa Will Reveal White House Connection to IRS Scandal at Today’s Hearing (+video)

/18 Comments/in , /by

FOX News reporter Carl Cameron told Bill O’Reilly tonight that on Thursday House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has information that will move the IRS scandal up into the White House.

“What he said to me today was make sure to watch tomorrow’s hearing because he’s going to present the evidence to prove it…. That he can get it right up all the way into the White House before it was all revealed.”

Dirty Leftists Attack Rep. Issa’s 40-Year Old Past Because of Him Connecting IRS to Obama

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Newsmax

Issa’s allegations about what the White House knew about the IRS targeting conservatives rattled Democrats into sending out a barrage of counter-claims.

Former senior Obama aide David Plouffe ripped Issa in a Twitter message, referring to allegations from as far back as 1972, when Issa was still a teenager.

“Strong words from Mr Grand Theft Auto and suspected arsonist/insurance swindler. And loose ethically today,” Plouffe tweeted.

Plouffe’s “grand theft” crack referred to charges of larceny that Issa faced in 1972 after he allegedly stole a Maserati sports car. Issa claims the incident was a case of mistaken identity and the charges were later dropped.

The “arsonist/insurance swindler” insult referred to a 1982 fire at a Cleveland warehouse belonging to Issa’s companies Quantum Enterprises and Steal Shopper. The fire was ruled suspicious and Issa collected an insurance payout, but he was not charged with any crime.

Read more from this story HERE.