White House spokesman Josh Earnest accused Republicans of harassing IRS Commissioner John Koskinen the same day a GOP lawmaker introduced a resolution to censure him and strip him of his government pension.
Asked what he thought about the censure resolution, Earnest said he hadn’t seen “that specific news.” But he criticized Republicans for making Koskinen’s already difficult job even harder by leveling “false accusations,” and by cutting the funding of the IRS by a billion dollars over the last five years.
“We’ve seen wait times for customer service increase … it has not had a positive impact on enforcement and then Republicans come back and say he’s not doing a very good job,” Earnest said. “It’s not on the level … if they spent half as much timing making sure the IRS got enough money to do their job than undermining the IRS, then the country would be much better off.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, introduced the censure resolution, which urges Koskinen to resign or be removed by Obama. It also says Koskinen should give up his government pension and other benefits.
The censure resolution stems from complaints that the IRS has not adequately responded to charges that it improperly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups.
The Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing next week to scrutinize Koskinen’s alleged mishandling of the investigation into these allegations of improper targeting. That hearing will discuss evidence gathered so far about Koskinen’s alleged misconduct.
Several members of the conservative Freedom Caucus have called on Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to allow hearings on the evidence against Koskinen, and said the absence of hearings would prompt them to push for a House floor vote on the censure bill.
