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Calls for a special prosecutor after newly revealed IRS documents show the targeting scandal was from DC, not Cincinnati like the administration has been saying
STEVE FORBES: Of course they will stick to it because the story is about to stick to them. This is one of the ugliest political scandals in U.S. history. The commissioner to the IRS, at least 120 visits to the White House, not just to visit the Easter bunny. The Chief of staff at the IRS, upwards of 300 visits to the IRS. This is going to get smellier and smellier.
RICK UNGAR: If you have a problem, get it out; get it all out in front of the scandal. I don't know if we have a smoking gun here, let's keep in mind the objective of the opposition has always been to pin this on the White House, that hasn't happened, not saying it couldn't happen. None of this is helpful; why not just say what happened?
JOHN TAMNY: No serious person thinks a field office in Cincinnati concocted a plan to muzzle tea party groups. We know what happened, tea party groups much influenced the 2010 elections, the Democrats and the Obama administration did not like that, they decided in 2012 that we have to restrain them, we don't like what they did in 2010, so they stick the IRS on them. The idea it came out of Cincinnati is laughable and it does need to be investigated.
MIKE OZANIAN: You have to look at the trend in the Obama administration when it comes to scandals to see why we will need a special prosecutor. They lied about ObamaCare, lied about Benghazi, Eric Holder was held in contempt during Fast and Furious in Mexico. They will never tell the truth because it is in their DNA; we are going to need a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of this.
RICH KARLGAARD: We will get what we got in Benghazi where White House says ‘that was so 2 years ago.' This rises to a scandal that exceeds anything Nixon has done. When you have Lois Lerner, saying we should target groups and question the administration on things like debt, and spending and the course of government, these are what democracies do.
CARRIE SHEFFIELD: The constitution guarantees freedom of association, it's hypocritical that liberals are crying about the fact that we need to limit free speech when it comes to campaign donations. The constitution has been held up repeatedly by the Supreme Court on that issue, yet they give a blind eye to this blatant obstruction to the constitution.
With Transportation Bills full of funds and all the federal and state gas taxes and the all the tolls, do we already have enough money to fix our roads and bridges?
RICH KARLGAARD: We do. What's disturbing is that in the 20th century, government projects included the golden gate bridge, interstate highway system, space travel; I don't know why the government is screwed up and can't build big infrastructure projects or improvements today. The fact is they can't. We need more private competition.
BILL BALDWIN: The unions, big spenders and the president are on the side of the angels. We should put unemployed construction workers to work. I don't agree with Rich, we shouldn't have Google build another overpass alongside of a rusty overpass so we can have competition. That isn't efficient.
SABRINA SCHAEFFER: This new bill is another $302 billion. I sympathize with the infrastructure problems, but we need more transparency, competition and accountability first before we throw good money after bad. The projects need to be done correctly the first time.
RICK UNGAR: We should get an accounting of where the money has gone. What I worry about is we are going to politicize this and argue about it for so long that we are descending into a third world nation status with our infrastructure. Figure out if you want to go private of public, let's not mess around with this for too long.
STEVE FORBES: The fund was set up to build the interstate highway system and maintain it. Now that the federal government can't do it, give it to the states. We don't have a problem with freight rail in this country; private sector does it very nicely. Don't have a problem with packages and FedEx, they do it nicely. When the private sector is involved, they maintained and innovation is brought in. Why not do it with highways?
MIKE OZANIAN: The way to fix the potholes is to actually to shrink the scope of the bill, we don't need the transportation bill to monitor car imports from Mexico, the internet and also be a bank and try to create green jobs. There is more than enough money to fill the potholes if we just focus.
Should our tax dollars pay for lawmakers to fly first class?
SABRINA SCHAEFFER: I absolutely do. In the early republic, lawmakers who were obsessed with distinction were frowned upon and mocked by their peers, clearly something has changed. Now we have lawmakers who are looking to opt out of ObamaCare, who are driven around, they have turned into little kings; we need to rein them in.
BILL BALDWIN: I don't like to see my tax money wasted either but do we want to clutter our lives with more laws? The answer is publicity what if the entire budget of each congressman was easily available online and you can have voters decide if they like it.
JOHN TAMNY: I flew down to St. Thomas and Rep Charlie Rangel was in first class. As a taxpayer, I want a law that protects me from paying for this. Beyond that, it should be painful to serve; it should not be full of perks to be in Congress because that means they stay for life. We want them to leave as quickly as possible and join us so they don't spend our money.
STEVE FORBES: Congress isn't supposed to do it but they found a loophole and they are taking advantage. Publicity is good, but we need to have a law as well, they give plenty of laws to us. The other good thing about having them fly in coach is they will be in favor of performing air traffic control.
CARRIE SHEFFIELD: Cry me a river, these people are wealthy. They should pay the difference if they want to be in first class. We are all about welfare reform and means testing; let's make flying first class, means tested.
INFORMER
Stocks to help buy the American dream!
MIKE OZANIAN: Johnson Controls. (JCI)
52-WEEK HIGH: $52.50
52-WEEK LOW: $34.40
BILL BALDWIN: CarMax (NYSE: KMX)
No-haggle pricing of high-quality used cars. Takes the stress out of buying.
52-WEEK HIGH: $53.08
52-WEEK LOW: $42.21
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