Fox News – by Stephanie McNeal
The Texas communications director for Enroll America has resigned after a conservative watchdog group posted a video of him discussing his Democratic leanings.
A spokesman for the self-proclaimed non-profit, non-partisan group, which is leading efforts to enroll Americans in ObamaCare, confirmed to FoxNews.com Chris Tarango has resigned after the video by Project Veritas was posted online.
In the video, Tarango tells an actor posing as a Democratic operative that he is helping out with a Texas House race on the side, “so that’s about as partisan as it gets.” He says that many people who worked for Organizing for America, the grassroots arm of Obama for America during the 2012 campaign, ended up working for Enroll America.
“There’s a lot of talent that got sucked into Organizing for Action. I mean, there’s a lot of talent that got sucked into Enroll America, but we are all Obama people,” Tarango said.
The undercover operative, who tells Tarango he works for a fake Democratic political action committee, then asks Tarango if he can give him a private list of potential ObamaCare enrollees for political purposes. Tarango says he would be willing to “have a conversation” with someone who may be able to do so.
Justin Nisly, the National Press Secretary for Enroll America, tells FoxNews.com the video does not show any employee violating the organization’s non-profit status, but Enroll America feels that even the suggestion an employee would be willing to do so is unacceptable.
“We’re fully compliant with all relevant laws and regulations, and there is absolutely no credible evidence to suggest otherwise,” Nisly said in an email.
Nisly also said Enroll America does not actually enroll people in coverage, so they do not have access to any personal data Americans may submit during the enrollment process.
“What’s more, we bar the use of our resources for partisan activity, and have extensive safeguards on all of our data to make sure it is used for education and enrollment purposes,” he said.
On Friday, a self-described nonprofit, nonpartisan government accountability group filed a complaint with the IRS that Enroll America was violating its tax-exempt status by participating in partisan politics, citing the Project Veritas video as evidence.
The group, Cause for Action, has also written a letter to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot, asking him to investigate whether Enroll America and other groups have violated the state’s laws and the IRS code.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is also the subject of a House probe into her affiliation with Enroll America after she solicited financial donation for the organization and others promoting ObamaCare. The agency has said the Public Health Services Act allows the secretary to do so.
What Veritas did was important in weeding out opportunistic scumbags like Tarango…on the other hand, the chances of another Tarango being outted now are less likely…these scumbags will now likely be more careful about who they tell and what they say. Still, I am glad Veritas did it. More stuff like this needs to happen. I’d love it if Veritas can get on film and posted some AIPACer calling for genocide against Palestinians because we all know that is what these people want. It is too bad most US Jews still blindly believe Israel is just fine…
“In the video, Tarango tells an actor posing as a Democratic operative that he is helping out with a Texas House race on the side, “so that’s about as partisan as it gets.” He says that many people who worked for Organizing for America, the grassroots arm of Obama for America during the 2012 campaign, ended up working for Enroll America.”
What a MAROON!!!