“I honestly have lost sleep in fear of what our government might do next,” Dianne Belsom, president of the Laurens County Tea Party in South Carolina, told members of the House committee responsible for the nation’s tax laws.  The six witnesses on Tuesday represented groups that varied in size and mission, from local tea party chapters like Belsom’s to the National Organization for Marriage. But each offered similar testimony about an application process they saw as overly intrusive, and treatment from the agency that one argued was criminal.  DOCUMENT: Inspector General’s IRS report  Kevin Kookogey, founder of a group called Linchpins of Liberty, said delays in obtaining nonprofit status cost his group a $30,000 grant, and asked why the IRS needed him to identify his mentoring group’s members – many of them minors.  Becky Gerritson, president of a local tea party group in Alabama, became emotional as she detailed inquiries from the agency during what was a 635-day process in obtaining 501(c)(4) status, and her fear that the America she grew up in was “slipping away.”  Karen Kenney, founder of an Encino-based group, quoted John Adams and invoked “the spirit of patriots.” She noted that the IRS asked at one point for a list of “committed violations” of local laws or “breaches of public order.” She also joked that the IRS “needs to fix its labeling machine: We’re the San Fernando Valley Patriots, not Occupy Oakland.”  John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University’s School of Law and the chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, said that copies of the group’s tax returns and donor lists were leaked to the Human Rights Campaign, a group that supports marriage equality.  “These are felonies,” he said, and ones that have not been prosecuted despite his group’s requests of the Justice Department.  PHOTOS: President Obama’s scandal-filled week  Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the witnesses were “but a small sample of Americans who have been treated differently and discriminated against by their government because of their individual, deeply held beliefs.” And the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Sander M. Levin of Michigan, told the witnesses that they “are owed an apology,” and that members of both parties were committed to ensuring such targeting was not repeated.  But other Democrats, while not excusing the IRS’ activities, accused Republicans of “looking for a conspiracy where there is none,” as Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) put it. And he said by seeking special tax status, the groups were inviting scrutiny of their activities.  "None of your organizations were kept from organizing or silenced. We are talking about whether or not the American taxpayers will subsidize your work. We're talking about a tax break," he said.  Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) earned cheers from a supportive audience in the hearing room when he diverted from his planned line of inquiry to answer his colleague.  "To suggest that these citizens are to blame for applying, I don't understand how anyone can make that conclusion," he said.  Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), an icon of the civil rights movement, also noted that the IRS had been led by Republican appointees for the past decade. He asked “where was the outrage” when progressive groups and organizations like the NAACP were targeted during the Bush administration.  Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) also raised Organizing for Action, President Obama’s former campaign organization and now a 501(c)(4) group, asking whether its activities would qualify as political.  Tuesday’s hearing was the fifth in Congress related to the IRS scandal.  Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook
WASHINGTON &ndash; Members of conservative and  tea party -affiliated groups offered first-hand accounts of excessive scrutiny they faced from the  Internal Revenue Service  in response to applications for tax-exempt status, a process some argued was meant to intimidate government critics.