Repubs say they have found IRS scandal smoking gun. Wrong.

Repubs say they have found the smoking gun in the IRS scandal. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, they say according to White House public visitor records, visited the White House 157 times between 2009 and 2012, more than any other IRS Commissioner in history. Why so many visits? Repubs say Shulman was huddling with Obama to conspire against the Tea Party Conservatives.

The only problem with the story is that it is a lie.  Shulman only made 11 actual visits to the White House--many to attend ceremonies such as the Easter Egg hunt. The other visits were to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is within the White House gated compound and is sometimes called the White House but is a separate building from the "White House" that we normally think of as the White House.  As always the truth is much less interesting than the lie.

Oh, and the meetings at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building weren’t meetings with Obama.  They were primarily meetings with other administration officials to discuss implementation of Obamacare, such as the biweekly health reform deputies meetings and others set up by aides involved with the health-care law implementation efforts.  The IRS representatives attended these meetings to discuss and plan for the IRS role in implementing Obamacare as prescribed by the law.  And, it is unclear whether Shulman actually attended all of the meetings himself or whether he sent a Deputy to many of these meetings instead.

Read the truth about the Shulman visits to the “White House” here:  http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/05/the-fake-story-about-the-irs-commissioner-and-the-white-house/276399/