President Obama said that the IRS did not target Tea Party members and the VA “is better now” than when he came into office in an interview with Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart on Tuesday.
While talking about the VA in the broader context of government efficiency, Obama stated, [relevant remarks begin around 7:17] “when there was that problem with the IRS, everybody jumped including you…’Look, you’ve got this back office, and they’re going after the Tea Party.’ Well, it turned out, no, Congress had passed a crummy law that didn’t give people guidance in terms of what it was they were trying to do. They did it poorly and stupidly. … But, the truth of the matter is is that there was not some big conspiracy there. They were trying to sort out these conflicting demands.” He added that the “real scandal around the IRS right now” is its lack of funding.
Later, towards the end of the interview, Obama declared, “The VA is better now, than when I came into office. It is better now than when I came into office. Government works better than when I came into office.”
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