Rep. Paul Ryan speaks out on IRS targeting conservatives scandal

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WITI) -- The IRS scandal has consumed Washington, and now, Wisconsin's Paul Ryan is calling for a full and thorough investigation into the IRS targeting of conservatives.

Ryan calls the IRS scandal "rotten to the core."

The Janesville Congressman is vowing to get to the bottom of it in his Congressional oversight role. He says the revelations have eroded trust, not only in the IRS, but within the government as a whole.

The IRS scandal was topic number one on the Sunday talk shows, and is the talk of Washington, with everyone from President Obama to Congressional leaders weighing in.

Ryan, appearing on FOX News Sunday called for a complete investigation.

"We're going to continue this investigation and get to the bottom of this.  Who knew? What did they know? Why did they do this?  How high up in government did it go? People have no trust that their government is being impartial.  This is arrogance of power, abuse of power to the Nth degree," Ryan said.

White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer denied that President Obama played any role in the targeting of conservatives.

"Don't take our word for it. Look at what the Independent Inspector General said in the report and to Congress on Friday. One, there is no evidence this came from anyone other than the IRS. Two, this was not neccissarily based on political motivation.  That's what the Inspector General said," Pfeiffer said.

The U.S. Inspector General released a report that showed the IRS singled out groups with names like "Tea Party," "Patriots," or "9-12." In all, 298 groups received special scrutiny. 96 of those groups were Tea Party type groups.

"Groups with the word 'progressive' or organizing groups with liberal persuasion did not have this. They went through.  They were approved.   They targeted people based on their political beliefs -- people who had suspicion about the size of government, based on 'Tea Party', '9-12', and 'Patriots', so we know for sure they targeted people on political beliefs," Ryan said.

"What happened there was outrageous so what we have to do right now is fix the problem and make sure it never happens again," Pfeiffer said.

"This is rotten to the core. This is arrogance. This is big government cronysism, and this is not what hard working taxpayers deserve.  People deserve a government they can trust.  That is equality before the law," Ryan said.

Ryan is also drawing a connection between the IRS scandal and the Affordable Care Act.

Sarah Hall Ingraham, who was the official who oversaw tax exempt organizations at the IRS is now in charge of implementing the health care law.

The White House on Sunday, May 19th said there is no evidence Ingraham did anything wrong.