Wisconsin Tea Party Members Want ‘Heads To Roll’ at IRS

Wisconsin Tea Party members are fuming over revelations that the Internal Revenue Service singled them out for checks about their tax-exempt status.

On Friday, the IRS apologized for what it called “inappropriate targeting” of conservative groups such as the Tea Party. But Ozaukee Tea Party member Mike Lorino says that’s not enough.

“This is a blatant disregard of the law. The law states that they are not allowed to do that. Number one, it’s profiling. I’d like to see heads roll. I’d like to see someone criminally charged with this.”

Vince Schmuki is the co-founder of the “Wisconsinites Interests Now” Tea Party group. He says he’s worried about being targeted by the IRS.

“Anytime you can take the power of the government and focus it on any particular group that you disagree with their opinion on, that is incredible power. And to use that power is also incredibly destructive. I think the original quote came from John Marshall almost 200 years ago that ‘The power to tax is the power to destroy.’”

Orville Seymer, of Citizens for Responsible Government of Milwaukee, says they were asked by what he calls “a liberal group” for proof of their tax-exempt status. With this revelation, he’s concerned that could be part of a larger trend. He says an apology from the federal government isn’t enough.

“Some heads are going to have to roll here. And I find it very, very difficult to believe that some low-level bureaucrat took it upon himself to do this. This came from higher up.”

Seymer says he’s contacting Wisconsin’s members of Congress asking for a Congressional investigation.