Obama Slams 'Outrageous' IRS Targeting

President Obama officially responded to the widening IRS targeting scandal today, promising to hold the organization responsible if it engaged in any unacceptable behavior and saying he first learned of the accusations through reports in the media. "If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that's outrageous. And there's no place for it," Obama said. "And they have to be held fully accountable."

"The IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity, and people have to have confidence that they're ... applying the laws in a nonpartisan way," he continued, according to CNN. Also today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus called for an investigation into the matter by his committee; lawmakers were blasting the IRS left and right yesterday on the Sunday talk shows. (More Internal Revenue Service stories.)