Kathryn Watson
A Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of OpenSecrets.org data found Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees have backed Democrats over Republicans by 2-1 in their political donations over the last 25 years.
Donors listing the IRS as their employer have donated roughly $453,800 to Democratic candidates and causes and $221,400 to Republican candidates and causes since 1990. About one in four of the dollars for Democrats, or roughly $117,500, went to President Barack Obama.
But IRS employees since 1990 have also donated $203,000 to the National Treasury Employees Union, which in turn has given about 95 percent of its $6 million in political contributions to Democrats over the last 25 years, OpenSecrets.org data shows.
Disclosure of the huge bias among IRS employees for Democrats won’t help an agency under fire for years for illegally targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. Federal tax officials illegally tried to silence hundreds of conservative and tea party non-profit applicants during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns.
Lois Lerner, former director of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Unit, retired as the scandal heated up in 2013, and now members of Congress are calling for the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, claiming he obstructed Congress’ investigation into the matter.
IRS employees’ political donations could be much larger since federal law only requires employees to list their occupation, not their employer.
IRS employee contributions aren’t far off from employee donations at other federal agencies TheDCNF has analyzed.
Environmental Protection Agency employees made 90 percent of their political contributions in the 2012 and 2014 election cycles to Democrats. Health and Human Services employees made 74 percent of their contributions to Democrats over the last 15 years, according to OpenSecrets.org data.
