CEI Today: IRS abuse of power, immigrants & poverty, and EPA nominee misleading Congress

IRS ABUSE OF POWER – SAM KAZMAN

Openmarket.org: Excuses, Excuses

The IRS today acknowledged that it had wrongfully targeted Tea Party groups for heightened scrutiny. In trying to explain the agency’s mistake, IRS spokeswoman Lois Lerner reportedly stated “I’m not good at math” – an excuse that now seems to be going viral.

Given the smashing success of this phrase, we wonder whether the IRS will now use a few variations of it in the new Obamacare lawsuit that it’s facing. This lawsuit challenges the legality of the IRS’ unauthorized extension of the employer mandate to states that have refused to set up their own health insurance exchanges. The plaintiffs contend that Congress limited the employer mandate to participating states, and that the IRS has no power to rewrite the law.

IMMIGRATION – DAVID BIER

Openmarket.org: Heritage Immigration Report Implies 70% of Americans “Increase Poverty”

The Heritage Foundation’s new report on the fiscal costs of legalization for unauthorized immigrants concluded that it will cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion. Yesterday, I listed some reasons why I think this number is much too high, and on Wednesday, explained why I thought John Locke would say, “Keep immigration. Reform welfare.” Today, I want to look at the broader economic implications of the Heritage study.

Heritage was certainly not wrong to draw attention to the fiscal impact of immigration reform, but before it jumped to the conclusion that it will increase poverty and that conservatives should oppose it, it should have looked at the economic evidence, and gave earnest consideration to the implications of its report. America would not be better off without 70 percent of its workforce—we’d be much, much poorer.

OBAMA EPA NOMINEE – MARLO LEWIS

Globalwarming.org: Gina McCarthy’s Responses to Sen. Vitter’s Questions Part I: Bait-and-Fuel-Switch

Gina McCarthy — President Obama’s pick to succeed Lisa Jackson as EPA Administrator — is often described as a “straight shooter” and “honest broker.” McCarthy has a history of misleading Congress about the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulatory agenda.

Specifically, McCarthy and the Air Office over which she presides gave Congress and the electric power sector false assurances that the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations would not require utilities planning to build new coal-fired power plants to “fuel switch” to natural gas. McCarthy also denied under oath that greenhouse gas motor vehicle standards are “related to” fuel economy standards, even though anyone with her expertise must know that the former implicitly and substantially regulate fuel economy.