Schumer, Democrats Urged IRS to Target Tea Party Groups in 2012

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http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/schumer-franken-irs-tea/2013/05/18/id/505157

Schumer, Democrats Urged IRS to Target Tea Party Groups in 2012
Saturday, 18 May 2013

More than a year before the recent revelation by the Internal Revenue Service that it had targeted conservative and Tea Party organizations, a group of Democratic senators headed up by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer asked the agency to do that very thing, the Daily Caller reports.

Schumer, along with fellow Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, Tom Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Al Franken, contacted the IRS last year requested the agency cap the amount of political spending by groups presenting themselves as “social welfare organizations.”
 
http://conservativefiringline.com/f...emanding-irs-target-tea-party-groups-in-2012/

Flashback: Chuck Schumer, Al Franken sign letter demanding IRS target Tea Party groups in 2012
Posted on May 15, 2013 by jnewby

It’s becoming quite clear that there’s a new McCarthyism ruling in America. If you’re a conservative or oppose Obama, you can face scrutiny by the IRS or have your information given to George Soros-funded political groups. It’s all meant to keep you in line.
In 2012, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Al Franken, D-Minn., and five other Democrats signed a letter demanding the IRS target conservative groups or face legislation forcing them to do so.
The letter says in part:

We write to ask the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) to immediately change the administrative framework for enforcement of the tax code as it applies to groups designated as “social welfare” organizations. These groups receive tax and other advantages under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code (hereinafter, “IRC” or the “Code”), but some of them also are engaged in a substantial amount of political campaign activity. As you know, we sent a letter last month expressing concerns about the 501(c)(4) issue; an investigation this week by the New York Times has uncovered new, specific problems on how c)4)s conduct business. We wanted to address those new concerns in this letter.

IRS regulations have long maintained that political campaign activity by a 501(c)(4) entity must not be the “primary purpose” of the organization. These regulations are intended to implement the statute, which requires that such organizations be operated exclusively for the public welfare. But we think the existing IRS regulations run afoul of the law since they only require social welfare activities to be the ‘primary purpose’ of a nonprofit when the Code says this must be its ‘exclusive’ purpose. In recent years, this daylight between the law and the IRS regulations has been exploited by groups devoted chiefly to political election activities who operate behind a facade of charity work.
The letter closes with this:

“The IRS should already possess the authority to issue immediate guidance on this matter. We urge the IRS to take these steps immediately to prevent abuse of the tax code by political groups focused on federal election activities. But if the IRS is unable to issue administrative guidance in this area then we plan to introduce legislation to accomplish these important changes.”
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083100737.html



The commissioner said the investigation of the NAACP was undertaken because two congressional leaders, whom he declined to name, requested it. They were unhappy because Bond criticized Bush in a speech in July 2004, saying his administration preached racial neutrality and practiced racial division.

"They write a new constitution of Iraq and they ignore the Constitution at home," Bond said.

After filing four freedom-of-information requests, NAACP lawyers discovered that far more than two members of Congress called for an investigation and that all were Republicans.

Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Susan Collins (Maine) called for the investigation.

Others included Rep. Jo Ann S. Davis (R-Va.) and then-Rep. Larry Combest (R-Tex.). Former GOP representatives Joe Scarborough of Florida, who now hosts a talk show, and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., currently governor of Maryland, also requested a probe.

The investigation started Oct. 8, 2004, a month before the election. As the investigation dragged on into the following February, the NAACP announced that it would not continue to cooperate.
 
the MSM never seems to report on the real facts.

they always seem to slide right next to the line allowing the Rs to not look like complete hypocrits.


corporate media
 
Seven Democratic senators wrote a letter asking the IRS to investigate existing 501(c)4 organizations which they believed were abusing their tax exempt status. Republicans previously asked the IRS to investigate the NAACP, an existing group which they believed was abusing its tax exempt status.

This is very different than sorting through applications for would-be tax exempt groups and giving them extra scrutiny and slowing down the processing of those submissions. There could be no "red flag" about these organizations' misuse of tax exempt status because it had not even been granted yet. This was clearly, purely cherry-picking specific groups for delays because of an assumed point of view, and it is despicable.

Oh, the right wing would LOVE to have everyone believe that Obama was some devious Machiavelli behind it all (apparently he is a total incompetent except for when he's doing eeeevil!), but there is ZERO evidence of this. Stupid O'Reilly went on some rant stating that he believed Obama was behind it, and finally slipped in the fact that he was just speculating, the worm.

They do need to find out what happened, and heads need to roll. I do not believe it was a high-up situation. I also would not be surprised to find that the outrageous Citizens United decision has complicated and stressed the whole vetting of these groups, since it allows unlimited amounts of money to roll into these PACs from the country's wealthiest individuals, corporations, unions and lobbies.

But is this not some "Democratic" or "Obama" scandal. I trust the GOP to obsess over this for the next 1 1/2 years rather than policy and governance, and then wonder whey they got destroyed in the mid-terms.
 
Classic Liberal said:
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/schumer-franken-irs-tea/2013/05/18/id/505157

Schumer, Democrats Urged IRS to Target Tea Party Groups in 2012
Saturday, 18 May 2013

More than a year before the recent revelation by the Internal Revenue Service that it had targeted conservative and Tea Party organizations, a group of Democratic senators headed up by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer asked the agency to do that very thing, the Daily Caller reports.

Schumer, along with fellow Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, Tom Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Al Franken, contacted the IRS last year requested the agency cap the amount of political spending by groups presenting themselves as “social welfare organizations.”
Click to expand...

You did it again, huh?

Get pwnd in one thread then start a new one hoping ppl don't read the old one.

Loooooooooooser!
 
evince said:
the MSM never seems to report on the real facts.

they always seem to slide right next to the line allowing the Rs to not look like complete hypocrits.


corporate media
Click to expand...

I don't know.....some might have concluded that this...(from your Washington Post link above)......
During that campaign, the NAACP ran television spots featuring the daughter of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas in 1998. She criticized Bush, then governor of Texas, for not signing hate-crime legislation.
Click to expand...
was engaging in activity contrary to the provisions of 501c4.....
"501(c)(4) organizations are not permitted direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office".....what do you think?......
 
PostmodernProphet said:
I don't know.....some might have concluded that this...(from your Washington Post link above)......

was engaging in activity contrary to the provisions of 501c4.....
"501(c)(4) organizations are not permitted direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office".....what do you think?......
Click to expand...

There are going to be a lot of 501c4's who will either have to get out of the politics business or lose their tax exempt status....according to LAW...they must be EXCLUSIVELY a social welfare organization. The Tea Party is exclusively a political organization and should never have gotten the designation.
 
Steelplate said:
There are going to be a lot of 501c4's who will either have to get out of the politics business or lose their tax exempt status....according to LAW...they must be EXCLUSIVELY a social welfare organization. The Tea Party is exclusively a political organization and should never have gotten the designation.
Click to expand...

the tea party sought fiscal restraint from ALL politicians, regardless of party affiliation.....its not their fault liberals didn't give a fuck.......
 
PostmodernProphet said:
the tea party sought fiscal restraint from ALL politicians, regardless of party affiliation.....its not their fault liberals didn't give a fuck.......
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter. According to the LAW, as it was written, voted on by Congress and signed into Law by the President(Eisenhower...IIRC), these 501c4's are supposed to be EXCLUSIVELY Social welfare organizations. The IRS, when they wrote the guidelines for 501c4's, changed.the language from EXCLUSIVELY to PRIMARILY....which, I don't believe they have the authority to do.
 
oh my, all this 'letter of the law' crap is now important. why isn't it important enough to stop calling the letter of the law a 'gun show loophole'?????
 
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