GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law

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FILE - In this May 16, 2013 file photo, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will ensnare their biggest target: President Barack Obama’s health care law. But no one appears to have connected the factual dots yet, and it’s unclear whether they will. “Now we’ve learned that the IRS, which is tasked with enforcing this very unpopular bill of Obamacare, the IRS admitted they targeted Americans,” Bachmann said during floor debate this week on repealing the health care law. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

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GOP hopes IRS sc... FILE - In this May 16, 2013 file photo, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will ensnare their biggest target: President Barack Obama’s health care law. But no one appears to have connected the factual dots yet, and it’s unclear whether they will. “Now we’ve learned that the IRS, which is tasked with enforcing this very unpopular bill of Obamacare, the IRS admitted they targeted Americans,” Bachmann said during floor debate this week on repealing the health care law. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)
Jury gets first ... File - In this March 5, 2009 file photo, US singer Michael Jackson announces at a press conference that he is set to play ten live concerts at the London O2 Arena in July 2009. Jurors hearing Katherine Jackson’s lawsuit against AEG Live heard from a pair of defense witnesses who gave varying assessments of Jackson’s health as he rehearsed for the “This Is It” show. The testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom by choreographers Stacy Walker and Travis Payne on May 13-14, 2013, was the only evidence in the trial’s third week that focused on the pop superstar. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)
Despite controve... President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks at Ellicott Dredges in Baltimore, Friday, May 17, 2013, during his second "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour". (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Probe begins aft... Emergency workers arrive the scene of a train collision, Friday, may 17, 2013 in Fairfield, Conn. A New York-area commuter railroad says two trains have collided in Connecticut. The railroad says the accident involved a New York-bound train leaving New Haven. It derailed and hit a westbound train near Fairfield, Conn. Some cars on the second train also derailed. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Denis O’Malley) MANDATORY CREDIT
Majority of numb... A customer, right, waits for his Powerball lottery ticket at a convenience store in Chicago on Saturday, May 18, 2013. A little more than a year after three tickets split a world-record lottery prize, the jackpot for Saturday's Powerball drawing was nearing historic territory. Should nobody pick the correct six numbers, the prize money will roll over to next week's drawing and almost certainly eclipse the $656 million doled out to winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland in the Mega Millions game in March 2012. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
IRS probe ignore... FILE – In this May 16, 2013, file photo Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, speaks during a news conference with Tea Party leaders, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., chair of the Tea Party Caucus, left, about the IRS' targeting Tea Party groups on Capitol Hill in Washington. "I think the IRS' integrity is shattered," said Martin. Tea Party Patriots, a fierce Obama critic, was among the largest nonprofit conservative groups targeted by the IRS; the group raised $20.2 million in 2011, up from $706,000 just two years earlier, according to tax filings. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)
SKorea says NKor... A South Korean man watches a TV news reporting missile launch conducted by North Korea, at a Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, May 18, 2013. North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions. The letters at a screen read " Fired three short-range guided missiles." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Will Boy Scouts ... FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2013 file photo, James Oliver, left, hugs his brother and fellow Eagle Scout, Will Oliver, who is gay, as Will and other supporters carry four boxes filled with petitions to end the ban on gay scouts and leaders in front of the Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Dallas, Texas. With its ranks deeply divided, the Boy Scouts of America is asking its local leaders from across the country to decide whether its contentious membership policy should be overhauled so that openly gay boys can participate in Scout units. The proposal to be put before the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council on Thursday, May 23, 2013 at a meeting in Grapevine, Texas, would retain the Scouts' long-standing ban on gays serving in adult leadership positions. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Victims: Marines... ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - A sign cautions visitors outside a "pump and treat" facility on the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. The sprawling installation is the site of one of the worst drinking water contaminations in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Allen Breed)
Egyptians target... Abdel-Nour, the father of 24-year-old school teacher Dimyana Abdel-Nour, who is accused of insulting Islam while teaching fourth graders history of religions, speaks on the phone to a live television show about his daughter from his home in southern Egypt's ancient city of Luxor, Egypt, Thursday, May 16, 2013. Freed on Tuesday on a 20,000-pound (nearly 3,000 dollars) bail after nearly a week in detention, Abdel-Nour is due to stand trial later this month. Criminalizing blasphemy was enshrined in the country's new Islamist-backed constitution adopted in December. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Zayed)
What to watch fo... Kentucky Derby winner Orb stands as he is cooled down after a workout at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Friday, May 17, 2013. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled to take place May 18. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
OJ's ex-lawyer c... Defense attorney Patricia Palm, left, and O.J. Simpson appear at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (AP Photo/Ethan Miller, Pool)
2 fires north of... Mike Whitaker, left, and Andrew Fullingim watch smoke from a brush fire from Lake Hughes in Castaic, Calif., Friday, May 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Santa Clarita Valley Signal, Jonathan Pobre) MANDATORY CREDIT, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS OUT
10 Things to Kno... Steam rises from Kentucky Derby winner Orb as a groom washes him after a workout at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Friday, May 17, 2013. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled to take place May 18. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Orb favored to t... Oxbow, with an exercise rider aboard, gallops at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Friday, May 17, 2013. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled to take place May 18. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Pa. coffee run l... CORRECTS SPELLING OF LAST NAME - In this undated photo downloaded from the Union County Prosecutor’s website, Caleb “Kai’ Lawrence McGillvary is shown. McGillvary, 24, is being sought by New Jersey authorities on a murder warrant in the beating death of a New Jersey lawyer he befriended in New York’s Times Square. The homeless hitchhiker had previously gained Internet and TV celebrity status by using a hatchet to intervene in an attack in California on a utility worker on Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Union County Prosecutor’s Office)
Venturi, US Open... File-This June 20, 1964 file photo shows Ken Venturi making the final putt on the 18th green during the U.S. Open Golf Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. The former U.S. Open champion has died just 12 days after he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He was 82. His son, Matt Venturi, says he died Friday May 17, 2013 in a hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Venturi had been hospitalized the last two months for a spinal infection, pneumonia and an intestinal infection. (AP Photo/File)
Tornado-ravaged ... Texas Governor Rick Perry, left, tours the storm-damaged Rancho Brazos Estates subdivision near Granbury, Texas, on Friday May 17, 2013. On Wednesday, powerful storms produced 16 tornadoes in the area that left six dead. (AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Max Faulkner) MAGS OUT; (FORT WORTH WEEKLY, 360 WEST); INTERNET OUT
Ex-Groupon CEO w... FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 4, 2011 file photo, Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon, attends his company's IPO at Nasdaq, in New York. Former Groupon CEO Mason announced several new ventures Friday, May 17, 2013, including indulging his inner rock star with an album of “motivational business music.” (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
AP PHOTOS: Cuba'... In this May 15, 2013, Yanolis Carrero, 27, right, a gay transvestite artist known as "Blanquita," performs on a table top during a drag show at the Fashion Bar Havana, in Havana, Cuba. A week of drag shows, colorful marches and social and cultural events in Havana culminates Friday with celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia. Gays were persecuted for decades after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, sometimes sent to grueling rural work camps along with others considered socially suspect by the Communist government. But there has been a gradual shift away from macho attitudes, and Fidel Castro himself has publicly regretted the mistreatment of people seen as different. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Treasury officia... Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, May 17, 2013, before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the extra scrutiny the IRS gave Tea Party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A year after IPO... FILE - In this May 18, 2012, file photo, provided by Facebook, Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, center, rings the opening bell of the Nasdaq stock market, from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Amid the hype and excitement surrounding Facebook's initial public offering, there were looming doubts. Potential investors wondered whether the social network could continue growing its advertising revenue without alienating users. One year later, much has changed at Facebook in a year, including the addition of mobile advertisements, the launch of a search feature and the unveiling of a branded smartphone. (AP Photo/Nasdaq via Facebook, Zef Nikolla, File)
Arrests in New O... Shawn Scott, 24, a suspect in the Mother's Day parade shooting is led out of the New Orleans 5th District Police Station, Thursday, May 16, 2013 in New Orleans. Shawn and Akein Scott. two brothers with a history of drug arrests and suspected ties to a neighborhood gang each face 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder in a shooting spree that brought a sudden bloody end to a neighborhood Mother's Day parade. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Hagel orders rev... Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gestures as he speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, May 17, 2013, to discuss sexual assaults in the military and the promotion of Lt. Gen. Curtis "Mike" Scaparrotti to command U.S. troops in South Korea, among other topics. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Record Powerball... Sheila Sutton updates the Powerball prize money sign at the Super C convenience store in Lincoln, Neb., Friday, May 17, 2013. Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600 million, making it the largest prize in the game's history and the world's second largest lottery prize. Sutton sold a million dollar powerball ticket on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Government suppo... Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy attends a meeting with small companies in central Madrid
Hamas rebuffs Ar... Palestinians hold a placard depicting senior Hamas leader Haniyeh during a rally in Nablus
Job market resil... People wait in line to meet a job recruiter at the UJA-Federation Connect to Care job fair in New York
Obama tells Mexi... U.S. President Obama delivers a speech during his visit to Mexico City
Hungary court al... Marton Gyongyosi, a leader of Hungary's third-strongest political party Jobbik, attends an interview with Reuters in Budapest
Column: The glob... U.S President Obama speaks beside Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto (not pictured) during a news conference after attending
Muslims in Myanm... Muslim men from Win Kite village look from behind the fence which residents built to protect their village from mob attacks
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Dozens dead as A... Smoke rises after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Homs
EU sees deeper e... People walk past the shop window of a jewelry store in central Barcelona
Prosecutor in Bh... Security officials inspect the damaged car, which prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar was travelling in, when he came under attack by u
Obama blesses Me... U.S. President Obama alights from Air Force One as he begins his visit to Mexico City
Engineer who war... File picture shows people rescuing garment workers trapped under rubble at the Rana Plaza building after it collapsed, in Savar
Analysis: TPG-Ax... An electronic display identifies the post that trades SandRidge Energy stock on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
Exclusive: At Te... File picture shows the burning remains of a fertilizer plant after an explosion at the plant in the town of West, near Waco, Tex
North Korea coul... A North Korean nuclear plant is seen before demolishing a cooling tower in Yongbyon
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U.S. seeks North... An undated still image of a video footage shows a portrait of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae
States balk at m... President Obama's fiscal 2014 budget proposal is released and distributed to Senate staff members on Capitol Hill in Washington
FBI releases pho... The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames during a protest
Gaddafi's son Sa... Still image taken from video of Saif al-Islam, son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, sitting behind bars in Zintan
U.S. rethinking ... U.S. Defense Secretary Hagel and British Defense Secretary Hammond hold a joint news conference at the Pentagon in Washington
Obama rounds out... U.S. President Barack Obama announces new nominees at the White House in Washington
Analysis: Canadi... Cranes stand at various condominium developments in Toronto
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