IRS targeting overlooked biggest players in outside political spending

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57585160/irs-targeting-overlooked-
biggest-players-in-outside-political-spending/

WASHINGTON There's an irony in the Internal Revenue Service's crackdown on
conservative groups.

The nation's tax agency has admitted to inappropriately scrutinizing
smaller tea party organizations that applied for tax-exempt status. But
the IRS largely maintained a hands-off policy with the much larger, big-
budget organizations on the left and right that were most influential in
the 2012 elections and are organized under a section of the tax code that
allows them to hide their donors.

"The IRS goes AWOL when wealthy and powerful forces want to break the law
in order to hide their wrongful efforts and secret political influence,"
said Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who is among a small
Senate group pushing campaign finance reform measures that would force
these big outside groups to disclose their donors. "Picking on the little
guy is a pretty lousy thing to do."

Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity
were among those that spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads and get-
out-the-vote efforts to help Republicans. Democrats were aided in similar
fashion by Priorities USA, made up of former Barack Obama campaign aides,
and American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, an opposition research group
led by a former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

And yet those groups so far have escaped investigations into whether they
have crossed the blurry line under the law between what constitutes a tax-
exempt "social welfare" organization that is free from donor reporting
requirements and a political committee subject to taxes and disclosures.

Watchdog groups and lawmakers who have sought more disclosure and
restrictions on such groups claim an injustice. They say the IRS saga over
the targeting of smaller groups shines a bright light onto the agency's
failure to guard against the flood of secret money into the political
system through the creation of the deep-pocketed groups.

Special Section: IRS Targeting Controversy

Yet other advocates of reform worry that, in light of the IRS disclosure
of targeting small groups, government regulators will be less likely to
scrutinize the tax-exempt status of the bigger, more powerful groups out
of fear that they will appear to be targeting groups for political
reasons.

"We expect that opponents of disclosure will try to use the recent
developments to allow the groups that are misusing the tax laws to hide
donors to continue misusing them. But that's a battle that we will engage
in," said Fred Wertheimer, founder and president of watchdog group
Democracy 21.

Ousted IRS chief: "I did not mislead" the American people
IRS official moved from office that targeted conservatives to Obamacare
office

Since a series of court decisions including the Supreme Court's ruling in
the 2010 Citizens United case, the IRS has seen an influx of applications
- from 1,735 in 2010 to 3,357 in 2012 - by so-called social welfare groups
wanting to form under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code. That
section grants tax-exempt status as long as the primary mission of these
organizations is not politics and influencing elections. The IRS makes
that determination. Such nonprofits can keep secret the names of their
donors, which are not subject to traditional campaign finance limits.

The rules are fuzzy. The law says that these groups can only be involved
in social welfare activity and not politics. But IRS regulations give the
groups leeway to conduct political activities - as long as that is not its
"primary activity." That conflict opens the door to potential abuses and
different interpretations of what is allowed and what is prohibited.

An IRS inspector general's report released this week recommended
developing for the first time specific guidelines to measure the primary
activity of social welfare organizations, and some in Congress have shown
a willingness to review big groups like the nonprofit Crossroads GPS and
its sister super PAC, American Crossroads. They spent a combined $176
million in the last election cycle, much of it on television
advertisements to benefit Republican candidates.

A Senate investigative panel led by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan and
Republican John McCain of Arizona has been reviewing the use of social
welfare groups for political causes for the past year and now is examining
the agency's handling of the tax-exempt reviews.

And in a letter to congressional investigators Thursday, Rep. Chris Van
Hollen, D-Md., urged the House Ways and Means Committee not to ignore the
influx of groups that may be abusing the tax code as part of its upcoming
IRS probe, saying: "I hope we can remove the incentive for any group,
regardless of its political orientation, to seek 501(c)(4) tax-exempt
status to engage in significant political campaign activities while hiding
their donors."

Despite the bipartisan outcry over the IRS scandal, there's little
incentive for lawmakers on either side of the aisle to push for reforms
because Republicans and Democrats alike benefit from these big outside
groups.

In fact, just the opposite may be happening.

Some congressional Democrats, fearful of being tied to the scandal, are
backing the push for more aggressive enforcement of these groups. And some
conservative leaders and Republican donors are using the IRS scandal to
help protect the status quo while preparing to pump hundreds of millions
of dollars - raised anonymously in many cases with no contribution limits
- into the next election cycle, just as they did last fall.

"I would hope that this new information about the politicization of the
IRS should put the brakes on any sort of disclosure of donors who wish to
remain anonymous," said Charlie Spies, who helps raise money for several
conservative organizations and previously led the super political action
committee that raised more than $140 million to benefit Mitt Romney's
presidential bid. "We're now seeing exactly what the risk is for donors to
be disclosed."

At least some tea party groups are unwilling to trust the agency with more
enforcement power in the wake of such damaging revelations.

"The IRS' integrity is shattered," said Jenny Beth Martin, chairman of the
Tea Party Patriots, which was among the largest nonprofit conservative
groups the IRS targeted. She said that now, more than ever, donors need
freedom to give money anonymously "without fear of retribution" from a
politicized IRS. In the meantime, she says her organization's influence is
growing, fueled by anonymous unlimited donations.

Wertheimer, of Democracy 21, said the "laundering of secret money into
elections" will become a greater scandal than IRS misconduct unless
something is done.

"There will be efforts to sweep this under the rug," he said. "They may
succeed on a temporary basis for a relatively short period, but they are
not going to succeed in the long term."



--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.

Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptness.

Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 200% and leaves millions without health care.

Obama helped bankrupt Illinois. Democrat run Chicago closes 54 public
schools.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---