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"Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice. She did not say when they found out."

Always those damn low level workers... Of course, no names.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/irs-apologizes-targeting-conservative-groups


UPDATE: (May 18, 2013)

The woman whose question prompted a top Internal Revenue Service official to admit the agency was inappropriately targeting conservative groups says she was contacted prior to the event that elicited the admission and was directed to ask the question.
Celia Roady, a prominent tax lawyer in the firm of Morgan Lewis, said she was called personally by Lois Lerner, the IRS head of the tax exempt division, on May 9.

"I received a call from Lois Lerner, who told me that she wanted to address an issue after her prepared remarks at the [American Bar Association] Tax Section's Exempt Organizations Committee Meeting, and asked if I would pose a question to her after her remarks," Roady said in a statement to U.S. News and World Report. "I agreed to do so, and she then gave me the question that I asked at the meeting the next day. We had no discussion thereafter on the topic of the question, nor had we spoken about any of this before I received her call. She did not tell me, and I did not know, how she would answer the question."

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/17/exclusive-woman-who-asked-irss-lois-lerner-scandal-breaking-question-details-plant

UPDATE: (May 21, 2013)

Top IRS official will invoke the Fifth Amendment in congressional hearing about tea party targeting program

The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday afternoon that Lois Lerner, who heads up the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt division, plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in a hearing Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs.
The Fifth Amendment provides that U.S. citizens may not be compelled to offer testimony if telling the truth would incriminate them.
Lerner's defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III, wrote to the committee on Tuesday that his client would refuse to answer questions related to what she knew about the extra levels of scrutiny appled to conservative nonprofit organizations that applied for tax-exempt status beginning in 2010.
She also will decline to say why she didn’t disclose what she knew to Congress, according to the LA Times.
Lerner 'has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation,' Taylor's letter read, 'but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328696/Top-IRS-official-invoke-Fifth-Amendment-congressional-hearing-tea-party-targeting-program.html

Now why the fuck would you need details about other people in order to file taxes or not pay them at all? I'm glad I don't live in the U.S.

Of course back then the NYT found nothing wrong about this. Not doubt they will update that page anytime now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/opinion/the-irs-does-its-job.html?_r=0

WTF? How is this NOT politically motivated?

And what was the disposition of the donor lists? Were they forwarded to anyone?

Welcome to the new normal.

https://twitter.com/BrettLoGiurato/status/332909283421323264

Nothing will happen to them.

https://twitter.com/AaronBlakeWP/status/332903200204128256

^ this

I found this link with at least part of the questions asked to the targeted groups. Some of them pretty much impossible to comply (or remember).

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/10/10-crazy-things-the-irs-asked-tea-party-groups/

Of course, this was not politically motivated and only a low level employee did this. OK maybe 200 were involved but that was it.

"...& absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Let's assume the higher ups were complicit.  I believe part of that has already came out, and more will, of course.

There's some reason they choose to break this story now.  I wonder what it is. 

Back to the moral and ethical issues.  Apologies don't work, jail time does.

Six times the IRS has been accused of punishing President Obama's political opponents.

http://freebeacon.com/obamas-irs/

The thing with politicians is, when they use an illegal tool against their opponents they will be facing the other side of that evil hammer when they become opponents themselves. They legitimate it.

Not true, if the media is aligned with a politician, and is silent about those illegal tools, or protests only long after their use, and then weakly, but then if an opponent arises, screams at the least and silliest of transgressions.

To illustrate your point. The reaction of the WaPo, the "Tool" that once helped make a US president resign. Will they just report the facts and move on or are they going to be the pit bull they used to be and never let go of this story? Do not hold your breath.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/05/12/irs-targeted-groups-that-criticized-the-government-ig-report-says/

The key word here is he learned about that IRS news scandal at the same time as everyone else. The WH was totally insulated in a bubble were everything around bounces back from that force field (maybe developed by The SAIC Force Protection Suite?)

Everything else is what a US president was supposed to say, of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xprS6RjLZEw

I have ny sympathy for religious nutcases, even if they call themselves Tea Party.

Though I'm wondering, why are getting tax exempt? Can we get tax exempt status too please?

Also, it would probably be in Democrats' best interests to help the Tea Party as much as possible. They divide republican voters quite well, allowing Democrats to win more seats. Hell, some Democratic politicians actually admitted to funding local Tea Party candidates, just because they are so loony that beating them in elections is easier. So I doubt this is an order that came from above.

Ah...

You might want to dig into it a bit further.  This is roughly equivalent to say, Bush having the founders of MoveOn.org, Thinkprogress, and TPM audited by the IRS, and forcing them to disclose their donor lists, right before an election.

Wait....you wouldn't have stood for that from Bush?  No kidding?

http://c0391070.cdn2.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/pdf/irs-questions-aclj-tea-party-clients.pdf

No, I'm upset about them having tax exempt status. I want one too  :'(

You do have tax exempt status! Just don't tell anyone you have Bitcoins :P

Why?  Why support in any sense political operatives making it virtually impossible for their opponents to get tax exempt status for their organizations?

If I understand correctly many of these groups are STILL WAITING for their applications to be approved or rejected.

Alan P. Dye, a nonprofit attorney with the Washington, D.C. firm of Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, told MailOnline that he represents six tea party groups that have been waiting for periods of up to 30 months for the IRS to issue rulings.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323978/Revealed-The-55-questions-IRS-asked-tea-party-group-years-waiting--including-demands-names-donors-volunteers.html#ixzz2TGf1lhOI
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Got some more info on this today. It's apparently for their 501c (?) SuperPac status. Basically those groups we've all been hearing about that allow unlimited anonymous political donations, using a tax group organization that was set up as "service the social welfare." They get away with it by claiming that their "concern" ads that attack opposing politicians are just to "increase awareness of an issue that may adversely affect general welfare." It's basically bullshit that needs to stop, and need to stop on both sides. Yes, it's unfair that it was done more to the right-wing nuts than to left-wing nuts. And yeah, I'm kinda conflicted about it, since with Bitcoin you'd be able to do unlimited political donations and advertising, anyway.

Though I do have some schadenfreude about a fascist theocratic party getting shafted.

The thing is, when the machine is up and running when and to what point do you stop it? As long as it targets the people you oppose it is all fun and game maybe. Remember the Patriot Act? that was evil back then. Now since 110% of it is still running (10% above now, thanks to the AP phone taps scandal) not so much.

More examples beyond the Tea Party people?

IRS tells pro-life ministry to promote abortion:
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/irs-tells-pro-life-ministry-to-promote-abortion/#jAufHjDGJgoEqYuh.99

IRS targeted news anchor after Obama interview:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/05/kmov-anchor-the-irs-is-targeting-me-163945.html

Well, you have it about half right.  To get it completely right, take off the ideological filters for a second.  You don't need to discuss the character of the groups that were targeted.  

Slander them some other time and place.  No, nobody cares if you think it was fair or unfair.  

What is at issue is whether IRS personnel face jail time.

Got it now?

Jail.

Conversely, there's a term for those who might NOT think the IRS behavior was problematic.

Fascist.

LOL....but I use the term properly.

Lol, yeah, we both know that's not happening  :P

No, I don't know that.  If valid criminal charges exist, it'd be a very easy matter for a corrupt administration to pick out some low and middle level personnel as scapegoats.  Problem is some might start singing like canaries.

And the IRS - those are the goons that people would entrust with their medical datasets. 

Wait....now who are the fascists? 

Too much hassle and paperwork. Easier to just "investigate" it until people forget. Last time I remember someone going to jail, it was Scooter Libby, and that guy did some really bad stuff. No way anyone will be sent to jail for this. No way this problem will be fixed and never happen again, either.

I'd agree that all the inclinations from the left and liberal progressives would be to act indignant for a while, then let it be forgot, while if it were a Republican or conservative politician or public figure who had done something wrong, then for the very slightest or alleged wrong, the exact reverse would be done.

Of course continuing a barrage of insinuation that the tea party members were lower than dirt, stupid and ignorant and so forth would assist in this methodology.  The details and operational methods can be found at mediamatters.com, and the talking points are also easy to find.  Feel free to ask if you need help in finding any of these.

<yes I'm being totally ridiculous>

I don't have much love for democrats or republicans. I'm a libertarian AnCap. Your claim that if it were a republican or conservative politician has been thoroughly disproven during the Bush years. How many people went to jail for torture? For illegal phone wiretapping? I would actually claim the opposite, that Democrats get scrutinized WAY more than Republicans, for the simple fact that, while left-leaning news organizations at least attempt to show themselves as balanced, Republicans have practically all of radio and a well established news organization that blatantly and proudly parades itself as a part of the Republican party. Just based on the number of people screaming at each other in public, the number screaming at Democrats is higher. And neither party shies away from doing illegal things to undermine their opponents, or from trying to take away personal liberties, and neither party is interested in jailing their own.


There is only one group of people I really dislike, and that's conservatives. I mean that by the actual definition of the word, not as a political label. Religious nutcases, communists, status-quo democrats, fundamentalists, social-issues Republicans, and yes, Tea Party. Fuck all those people. I know there's that "first they came for..." , and freedom of speech thing though, but it's hard to defend the freedom of those assholes, when their purpose is to deny everyone else freedom.

There we go!

Goddam that was hard to parse.

Of course. Someone at the IRS had a personal vendetta against groups they saw as being far-right and opposing their personal political beliefs. I would be against those groups as well, as I see them as being nothing more than fascists. I doubt that whoever was doing it was concerned about the underlying fascism, though, and was probably doing it for much simpler political reasons (e.g. "they are not my party, thus they are the enemy").
My personal definition of "conservative" is one who resists change and wishes to "conserve" things as they are. "Fiscal conservative" is a well established colloquial term, but it also likely doesn't apply to us in a dictionary definition sense, since preserving the current monetary and financial systems is as far from what we wish to accomplish as you could get.

P.S. Sorry for messing up the quote earlier, making it hard to read who said what. Hope this split clears it up for future readers.

I remember on one of the "let's talk bitcoin" soundcloud episode that http://www.fr33aid.com/ was mentionned. I do not remember all the details but they started to accept bitcoin because the IRS was making it very difficult if not impossible for them to "regulate" their financial situation based on what they wanted to create. Could fr33aid be one of the targeted victims of that tyranny?

The number keeps growing (around 500 groups). Obama's brother charity based on the president's name by the way went through in a couple of days... http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/14/irs-official-lerner-approved-exemption-for-obama-brothers-charity/


"The IRS targeting of conservative groups is far broader than first reported, with nearly 500 organizations singled out for additional scrutiny, according to two lawmakers briefed by the agency.  IRS officials claimed on Friday that roughly 300 groups received additional scrutiny. Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that the number has actually risen to 471. Further, they said it is "unclear" whether Tea Party and other conservative groups are being targeted to this day.

We have an answer to that question now, too.  Here's Carol again, quoting the cover letter from the IG's findings, dated yesterday: "A substantial number of applications have been under review, some for more than three years and through two election cycles, and remain open."  Lest you even ask, nobody involved in this scheme has been disciplined (yet); just the opposite, in fact:


John King        ✔ @JohnKingCNN

from #IRS briefing to Hill: no employees involved in inappropriate scrutiny of conservative groups disciplined, one was promoted."

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/05/15/reports-irs-spared-liberal-groups-as-tea-party-languished-more-conservative-orgs-targeted-than-first-thought-n1596864

I work in government, and if the politics here is any indication of the system as a whole, I can tell you that the bureaucracy is extremely well set up to spread or shift blame. No one is responsible for anything other than their little piece of work, which is dependent on someone else's work. If you screw up, it's always the fault of 10+ other people that either didn't provide you the information in time, or didn't provide the correct information. "It's not my job" is the rule around here. So, with years of practice of shifting and diverting blame for things, I seriously doubt anyone will be finger as having sole responsibility. The most you could get out of a situation like that is someone at the top stepping down for whatever reason, even if they themselves had nothing to do with it either (though you could blame them for having a lack of oversight, as mentioned, it's impossible to see who did what here).

10 of 12 IRS offices implicated in scandal are in Washington.


The Treasury Inspector General's damaging report on the IRS-Tea Party scandal has destroyed the administration's claim that low-level workers in a Cincinnati, Ohio office are to blame, revealing that 10 of 12 agency offices referenced in the affair are in Washington.

The report repeatedly references actions taken by the Washington-based Exempt Organizations unit and guidance specialists also in Washington. What's more, the report was researched in the Exempt Organizations offices and the Cincinnati-based Determinations Units, which has received the blame for targeting Tea Party groups.

The audit, for example, probes into how the Cincinnati-based Determinations Unit developed its plan to pay attention to groups with the words "Tea Party," "Patriot," and other phrases used by anti-Obama groups during the 2010 election.

Washington-based offices denied involvement, but did change the "criteria" for groups to target in July 2011. Instead of looking for "Tea Party" groups seeking tax exempt status to investigate, the criteria was broadened to "political, lobbying or [general] advocacy."

However, "the team of specialists subsequently changed the criteria in January 2012" back, apparently without telling their bosses. "Specialists" are both Washington- and Ohio- based.

Popular talk radio host Mark Levin, one of the first to post the IG report online, suggested that the House committees investigating the scandal use the IG's "High-Level Organization Chart of Offices Referenced in this Report" on page 29 in picking who should testify. He suggested that the heads of all 12 be called to testify.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/10-of-12-irs-offices-implicated-in-scandal-are-in-washington/article/2529725

Again, I'd just note that this is currently a criminal investigation.  That says a lot.  That means it's already moved out of the "business as usual" category.

So, who went to jail when IRS targeted Martin Luther King? Or for having them audit Paula Jones under Clinton? Or when they targeted John Birch Society under Kennedy? Or the slew of political opponents under Nixon and a slew of liberal organizations and churches under G W Bush? It's as if this is a new thing.

Since this has started back in 2010, I'm going to put on my tinfoil hat and come up with a theory. What does Obama have to gain from targeting Tea Party groups? Answer is almost nothing. On the other hand, establishment Republicans have considered the Tea Party a huge threat from the start. Tea Party does populist politics and astroturfing really well, attracting common Joe Shmoe, but pick really awful, terrible candidates. Most of the Tea Party candidates that won primaries in 2010 were downright fucking nuts, and most of them didn't win, because they only appealed to the loony fringe. Republicans fought them during the primaries, and were always under a threat from the Tea Party of being primaried in otherwise safe "red states," which would divide the vote, and cause the state to turn blue (which actually happened in 2010). So, some high ranking Republican Senators and/or House members secretly instructed the IRS to target Tea Party groups, and make it as hard for them to raise money and participate in politics as possible. As a result, they were able to regain a lot of the seats they lost in the 2012 elections. And if they get caught, they can just blame it on Obama, since it would be "obvious" to everyone that he is the "Scary Black Man™ who is only in office because he cheated, and he is the only one with incentive to attack Tea Party I mean Republicans."

I'm sure that's not what happened, because I doubt politicians are smart enough to think up of something like that, but this theory would make much more sense than Obama wanting to target the Republican's third party black sheep himself. Of course, major political parties NEVER screw with politics by attacking their own fringe or supporting the fringe of their opponents. Except that time Democrats attacked the Green party and Republicans ran adds supporting them in every election...

SuperPACS buying elections. They should be looking into them.

Well, that you did....
:)

The head of the IRS has resigned (aka was fired), even though he likely had nothing to do with this, since he was somewhat newly appointed, and this started years ago. So... there you go.

Blame (for getting caught) has been assigned, back to business as usual.

So is this really a "conservative vs less-conservative" issue as some in the thread imply or is the larger issue about waste, fraud and abuse in government generally?  'Cause God knows conservative groups in America are gonna ride this all the way through the next election cycle as if no conservative-run government has ever done the same sorts of things.  Outrage about this specific incident should be more broadly directed otherwise it's just more of the same partisan crap.

Following the wise advice to never fight your enemy when he's engaged in shooting himself in the foot, I don't think any particular work is in order.  Maybe except fixing a big heap of popcorn.  An extra large biggie supply, dripping with real butter and high in salt.  Then it's time to watch the circus.

The problem with useful idiots is of course that they are, well,....

idiots....

I mean, we've got the IRS thing, the AP thing, the Fast and Furious thing, Bengazi. 

What the FUCK???

I'm by no means a conservative. But This is so wrong. Someone needs to take a big fall for this. Saying that it was not political is just not credible.  Shame on the IRS.

FWIW, Adam Curry agrees with you. But he proudly flies his crackpot flag, so take that how you will.

Y aqui que tenemos...

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/05/16/irs-allegedly-targeted-latino-run-conservative-group/#ixzz2TSlLopHG

Donde estamos corriendo?

There's definitely an issue with the IRS thing and the AP thing. And even with the drone thing, the VA thing, the Guantanamo thing, the war in Afghanistan thing, etc. But there's nothing there regarding Fast and Furious and Bengazi. Take a peek outside foxnewsiverse.

Esto es malo para todos los grupos. Creo que la fiesta del té tiene un reclamo legítimo.

YES!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/pro-obama-super-pac-outraises-romney-counterpart-again/

Republicans outspent Dems by a lot. Thanks for playing though.

DOH!

Now we find out the person who was in charge at the time of this whole mess is now in charge offf.........

IRS’s ObamaCare office

Wow.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/irs-official-in-charge-during-tea-party-targeting-now-runs-health-care-office/

The Bengazi thing is not being covered for one simple reason. It would tarnish the next Democrat in line for PotUS... that is Billery.

hillary who???

I think she just another fat ass bitching skank now.

cierto, pero solamente ahora que hablando de eta.....

SPEAK ENGLISH DAMMIT! >:(

 ;)

Damn.  What?  Your area hasn't been taken over yet?  Get with the program.

:)

lol La revolución de Bolívar se acaba llegando a la América rural.

Unirse a nosotros, myrkul. Unirse a nosotros!

Naw.  Here the rot emanates from Washington, DC (District of Criminals).

And the revolution of Bolivar....didn't you guys have to try to put over on the sheeple the "Bolviar Fuerte"?

Hahahaha....surrreee, buddy.  Strong money, based on a communist.

The rot actually stems from Wall Street and their buying of Washington.

You're blaming the businesses for the fact that it's cheaper to buy a politician than it is to compete in a free market?

No, the businesses buy the politicians to setup the regulations so they don't actually have to compete in a free market. Tax loopholes for them. Tax hikes for everyone else. They pay a fine. Everyone else goes to jail. It's a rigged system and both corporations and government are to blame since they have become one and the same.

While I certainly don't disagree with that last point, corporations and government definitely have mostly merged (it's not quite the United States of Monsanto, yet), who do we blame? The businessmen who simply are looking for the most economical way to stay in business, or the politicians who sell out cheap (and created the corporation to begin with)?

Strike the root, not the branches.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Move along now.

UPDATE: (May 18 2013)

The woman whose question prompted a top Internal Revenue Service official to admit the agency was inappropriately targeting conservative groups says she was contacted prior to the event that elicited the admission and was directed to ask the question.
Celia Roady, a prominent tax lawyer in the firm of Morgan Lewis, said she was called personally by Lois Lerner, the IRS head of the tax exempt division, on May 9.

"I received a call from Lois Lerner, who told me that she wanted to address an issue after her prepared remarks at the [American Bar Association] Tax Section's Exempt Organizations Committee Meeting, and asked if I would pose a question to her after her remarks," Roady said in a statement to U.S. News and World Report. "I agreed to do so, and she then gave me the question that I asked at the meeting the next day. We had no discussion thereafter on the topic of the question, nor had we spoken about any of this before I received her call. She did not tell me, and I did not know, how she would answer the question."

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/17/exclusive-woman-who-asked-irss-lois-lerner-scandal-breaking-question-details-plant

Business as usual.  Here are 34 Bush-era scandals to stimulate conversation.  Oh, and BTW, this was just the first 4 years.

http://www.salon.com/2005/01/18/scandal_11/

You did in fact provide a link to 'business as usual scandals.'

I don't think any of my friends in Mexico consider their 300 some dead killed with Fast and Furious weapons to be 'business as usual'.

And I'm sorry, but similarly, Bengazi does not fall within any stretch of business as usual.

So rather than providing the answer - you've clarified the problem.

UPDATE: (May 21, 2013)

Top IRS official will invoke the Fifth Amendment in congressional hearing about tea party targeting program

The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday afternoon that Lois Lerner, who heads up the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt division, plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in a hearing Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs.
The Fifth Amendment provides that U.S. citizens may not be compelled to offer testimony if telling the truth would incriminate them.
Lerner's defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III, wrote to the committee on Tuesday that his client would refuse to answer questions related to what she knew about the extra levels of scrutiny appled to conservative nonprofit organizations that applied for tax-exempt status beginning in 2010.
She also will decline to say why she didn’t disclose what she knew to Congress, according to the LA Times.
Lerner 'has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation,' Taylor's letter read, 'but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328696/Top-IRS-official-invoke-Fifth-Amendment-congressional-hearing-tea-party-targeting-program.html

I actually like this, it's straightforward and honest.  Cuts through all the sleazy, lying, insulting "I don't remember" crap.

Also means she's likely going down - her attorney has seen what the prosecutor has, and it is damaging.

I'm sorry for your friends in Mexico. But it pales in comparison to the nearly 5,000 troops and 120,000 civilians killed in Iraq, including both my little brother and my best friend.  A war started based on fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction.  Not defending either F&F or Benghazi--just saying obviously partisan outrage adds to the problem.  So what's your solution?  I'm saying that if Obama resigned tomorrow absolutely nothing would change so fight the real problem.

My sympathies for you in the loss of your brother and friend.

The death count for the border drug war last time I checked was approaching 10,000, so yes, it's an ignored problem of significant magnitude.

You claimed "business as usual", I refuted that with respect to F&F and Benghazi.  Now we're going to talk about Iraq and WMD?   This is called "shifting the goalposts".

I don't really have a problem with that, given that you admit that this is erroneous ....  Nothing about F&F or Bengazi constitutes "business as usual."  Different things can be read into that....WH fascist inclinations, total incompetence, etc....but it sure as fuck isn't business as usual...

Just listen to this fucker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8WNgbRGcRQ

Hope he gets jailed and can no longer choose even yes/no when the prisoners take turns on him.

Well, some of us out in the real world were warning about letting gangsters from Chicago into the White House. 

Quite a while back.  Back around 2008.

So who wants to laugh about the Tea Party, all those stupid tea baggers, knuckle dragging morons from the deep south, religious nutcase whackos,  now? 

(TEA = Taxed enough already)

Good job, much appreciated. I reside outside of US, but otherwise I would have joined the action I'm sure.

The middle-class has been squashed and lost it's voice. Lower-class relies on the foodstamps and will vote for more, no matter the cost. Higher-class has the wealth to lobby and exercise dubious tax planning. It's sad that middle class, who's carrying the biggest burden of taxes, has no say in taxation nor has the power to avoid them.

But then again, the disappearance of the middle class has often been followed by the total collapse of the empire. Hope we are getting very close to this; the world would be much better off without the US and the IMF.

Not necessarily  better, generally, argument of the sort "anything is better than XYZ" tends to be false.  Tell you what, how about skip the argument, just get those morons chanting "hope and change" without even telling them what the change is. 

Wait, which morons are those......

It's hard to say this but I am okay with their part of the middle class being hollowed out and impoverished.  Unfortunately, there is massive collateral damage in such cases such as all those on pensions. 

Economically, though, you are correct.  Once the middle class is impoverished, that government's taxing ability is so reduced that necessary contractions occur.

Forced government contraction:  Russia, 1992....