WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced the results of its online poll for the 2015 Porker of the Year. Last year produced a wealth of ludicrous moments in taxpayer gouging and government overreach, but in the end, the “winner” was never in doubt. The dishonor went to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen with 43 percent of the vote.
Commissioner Koskinen’s sins against taxpayers have been well-publicized, which makes his receiving this award all the more appropriate. CAGW named Koskinen Porker of the Month in August 2015 for his long litany of incompetence and obstruction as head of the reviled agency. Over the course of several hearings investigating the IRS targeting of conservative groups, Commissioner Koskinen repeatedly stonewalled and mislead members of Congress during the search for Lois Lerner’s emails, while refusing to ensure that IRS targeting would never happen again. His agency, in the face of a congressional subpoena, erased backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 emails from Lerner. Worse yet, a July 23, 2015 Government Accountability Office report found that more than two years after the scandal gained national attention, “the IRS has not taken sufficient steps to prevent targeting Americans based on their personal beliefs.” On October 27, 2015, 19 members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), introduced a resolution to impeach the commissioner for his conduct during the investigation.
The silver medal winner with 19 percent of the vote was Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert McDonald, who was named April 2015 Porker of the Month for finding a way to make his department’s already despicable waiting time scandal even worse by refusing to institute major reforms and establish clear consequences for unethical behavior.
CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “While I did not envy the choice online voters had to make, I believe they picked the most deserving Porker. Commissioner Koskinen’s extensive and dubious track record of evasive, incompetent, and hostile behavior to taxpayers and their representatives has been unmistakable and unacceptable. It is long past time that Commissioner Koskinen be replaced with an individual who respects taxpayers and their interests.”
For his dreadful tenure as head of the IRS, CAGW names John Koskinen its 2015 Porker of the Year.
CAGW is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Year is a dubious honor given to a lawmaker, government official, or political candidate who has shown the most blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers throughout the year.
