For nearly four hours, the House Ways and Means Committee and former IRS chief Steven Miller traded barbs in the first of many hearings attempting to get to the bottom of the scandal in the IRS.
The outgoing chief Miller, whose resignation was demanded by President Barack Obama earlier this week, denied that right wings groups were targeted for political reasons, according to the Washington Post.
"We provided horrible customer service here. I will admit that," Miller said. "Whether it was politically motivated is a very different question. We centralized cases based on political activity. We collected...more than tea party cases."
While Miller would not admit the groups were targeted for political purposes he was contrite when admitting that the IRS was wrong.
"I want to apologize on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service for the mistakes that we made and the poor service we provided," Miller said. "The affected organizations and the American public deserve better. Partisanship and even the perception of partisanship have no place at the Internal Revenue Service."
The contentious tone of the hearing was set during the opening statement made by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., who said that the tax system was "rotten at the core," according to the Washington Post.
"This appears to be just the latest example of a culture of cover-ups and political intimidation in this administration," Camp said. "It seems like the truth is hidden from the American people just long enough to make it through an election."
Camps remarks earned a pointed response from the top Democrat on the committee, fellow Michigander Sander Levin. According to the Associated Press, Levin said that if the hearing became a preview of 2014 campaigns, "we'll be making a very, very serious mistake."
Miller said that the IRS was not sufficiently staffed to deal with the enormous increase in groups requesting tax-exempt status following the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, according to the Washington Post.
As the hearing went on many questions were repeated many times and at no point did Miller waiver from his original statement that "foolish mistakes were made" and that the targeting of conservative groups was "a mistake and not an act of partisanship," according to the Associated Press.
As the hearing came to a close after close to four house committee chairman Camp made it clear that today's hearing was merely the first step in what may be a long investigation.
"I promise the American people, this investigation has just begun," Camp said.