- Joined
- Jan 27, 2013
- Messages
- 28,824
- Reaction score
- 20,497
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
Heya CJ :2wave: .....I think looking into the Democrats may give some insight. Even Huff-Po knew.
IRS Scandal Puts Dems Who Called For Investigation Of Conservative Group In A Bind
During the fall months of 2010, congressional Democrats grew increasingly alarmed that conservative non-profit groups, backed by big-money donors, would tip the scales of the upcoming election.
Many of the groups were filing for 501(c)(4) status, which allowed them to keep donors secret but forced them into policy advocacy -- not political campaigning -- as their primary activity. And Democrats, facing the prospect of tens of millions of dollars being spent against them, complained that these groups were hardly the "social welfare organizations" they claimed to be.
On Sept. 29, 2010, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) sounded the alarm. The chair of the influential Senate Finance Committee, which plays an important oversight role of the tax code, said he had "serious questions about whether such organizations are operating in compliance with the Internal Revenue Code."
The IRS, it turns out, took those concerns seriously. But in the process of addressing them, the tax agency managed to make itself the scandal.
When the truth was revealed this past week, the political world pounced. And among the first to express umbrage was Baucus.
“These actions by the IRS are an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public’s trust," said the Montana Democrat. "Targeting groups based on their political views is not only inappropriate but it is intolerable."
One and a half years after Baucus' letter, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) sent one of his own to the IRS urging the agency to "investigate whether any groups qualifying as social welfare organizations under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code are improperly engaged in political campaign activity." In a press release announcing that letter, Welch specifically cited Crossroads GPS, "the Karl Rove-backed group" as a potential violator of the law.
"This is a disaster for its reputation and it is no different than the Nixon use of the IRS to go after political enemies," he said. "You just can't do that. It sets them back, but it doesn't change their obligation to the American people to enforce the Internal Revenue Service code."
Welch's 2012 letter was one of several that Democratic lawmakers sent to the IRS. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also asked the agency if it intended to investigate these "social welfare" organizations. In a floor speech in September 2012, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) warned that there was insufficient regulation of these groups. His select investigative committee also announced earlier this year that it would look into why the IRS had failed to properly probe such 501(c)(4) groups. It's unclear if the investigation will now shape up.
Those senators were cheered on by liberal-leaning outlets, which also urged the IRS to play an active role. A New York Times editorial on May 7, 2012 said, "taxpayers should be encouraged by complaints from Tea Party chapters" that they were being targeted by the IRS. The paper went on to say that the IRS should be applying more scrutiny, "across the board."
About one year later, after the IRS had apologized for its filtering, the Times editorial page wrote that the IRS had been "absolutely correct to look into the abuse of the tax code." The mistake, it added, was applying the criteria it did.
"Clearly Senate Democrats recognize their own political vulnerability on this story and they're working furiously to get ahead of it. But that doesn't change the fact that they publicly pressured the IRS to engage in the very tactics they're now condemning, and that's a contradiction that will haunt them politically in the weeks ahead," said Brian Walsh, a former top spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "I'm not holding my breath but it would be an appropriate act of bravery and candor if the IRS asked Max Baucus why he's not sitting at the witness table next to them during these upcoming hearings.".....snip~
IRS Scandal Puts Dems Who Called For Investigation Of Conservative Group In A Bind
Good afternoon MMC - another well presented post!