Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.) called news of Internal Revenue Service workers being allowed to use agency credit cards to buy such things as wine, pornography and diet pills a "pathetic joke" on Fox News Tuesday:
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: This may seem like a small number, but even like a $50 bottle of wine, that's a couple weeks of student lunches for some families. Why are these people just stealing? Are you going to refer this to the Justice Department to tell Eric Holder, open a criminal investigation and let's stop looking the other way?
ROSKAM: Without question, the work that the Ways and Means Committee has done, the work that the Oversight Committee has done is why we're able to have this discussion. It's basically pressure from Capitol Hill that's driving this. Now with the Inspector General's report and other types of inquiries and oversights is why this is all coming to a head. I think it's in this larger context of just an abuse of power, and a manipulation. Think about the sort of pathetic joke that this is. They're taking resources, abusing resources, and then these same people are deciding who gets to participate in the public square and to debate these things.
The Associated Press reported:
Poor oversight by the Internal Revenue Service allowed workers to use agency credit cards to buy wine for an expensive luncheon, dorky swag for managers’ meetings and, for one employee, romance novels and diet pills, an agency watchdog said Tuesday.
Two IRS credit cards were used to buy online pornography, though the employees said the cards were stolen. One of the workers reported five agency credit cards lost or stolen.
IRS employees used agency credit cards to make more than 273,000 purchases totaling nearly $108 million in 2010 and 2011, according to the report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.