Calls Increase to Fire Ingram, Former Head of IRS Office Targeting Conservatives

On Friday, two prominent conservatives called on the Obama Administration to fire Sarah Hall Ingram, a senior IRS official who formerly headed the IRS office that targeted tea party and conservative organizations. Last year, Ingram was promoted at the IRS and now leads the agency’s implementation of ObamaCare. Brent Bozell, with ForAmerica and Tea Party Patriots’ Jenny Beth Martin say the public can’t trust Ingram to implement the expansive law fairly.  

“If there is any sliver of respect for the American people left in President Obama’s administration, he will immediately fire Sara Hall Ingram,” Bozell said in a statement. “There is no place inside the IRS for such an ideologically driven individual, one of the key individuals in charge of handing out punishment to groups that did not support the President’s far left agenda.”

Ingram headed the IRS’ Tax-Exempt office throughout the entire period it targeted conservative organizations. She received over $100,000 in bonuses during her tenure as head of the division. In 2012, the year the IRS targeting of conservatives allegedly ended, she was promoted to lead the IRS effort to implement ObamaCare. Former Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller called her an “outstanding public servant,” at Friday’s House hearing on the scandal. 

“Sarah Hall Ingram allowed and possibly encouraged the outrageous and discriminatory tactics toward Tea Party Patriots based on political ideology, clearly violating her supposedly unbiased office,” Jenny Beth Martin, National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement.

At best, Ingram was an incompetent manager. The steps her staff took in targeting tea party and conservative organizations were unprecedented and possibly illegal. This targeting went on for at least two years, calling into question how much authority she commanded within her division. 

The other possibility, of course, is that she was aware of the targeting and approved of it. 

In either case, her appointment to oversee implementation of ObamaCare is troubling. The IRS will exercise broad powers to define and enforce the law. Ingram will have wide latitude to interpret the law and fine those who fail to comply. 

“We do not trust the IRS,” Martin said, “to implement the Affordable Care Act in a fair and equal manner and further do not trust anyone who was involved in targeting tea party groups to administer the Affordable Health Care Act in a fair and equal manner.”