{"id":52224,"date":"2013-12-16T07:37:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T14:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=52224"},"modified":"2013-12-16T07:37:12","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T14:37:12","slug":"irs-now-to-make-its-targeting-of-tea-parties-legal-darleen-click","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=52224","title":{"rendered":"IRS now to make its targeting of TEA Parties legal [Darleen Click]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama and Democrats used the IRS to suppress TEA Party activity in 2012, now they want to codify<\/a> it for 2014 and beyond.<\/p>\n

In the media blackout of Thanksgiving week, the Treasury Department dumped a new proposal to govern the political activity of 501(c)(4) groups. The administration claims this rule is needed to clarify confusing tax laws. Hardly. The rule is the IRS’s new targeting program\u2014only this time systematic, more effective, and with the force of law.<\/p>\n

That this rule was meant to crack down on the White House’s political opponents was never in doubt. What is new is the growing concern by House Ways and Means Committee investigators that the regulation was reverse-engineered\u2014designed to isolate and shut down the same tea party groups victimized in the first targeting round. Treasury appears to have combed through those tea party applications, compiled all the groups’ main activities, and then restricted those activities in the new rule. […]<\/p>\n

Here’s how it works. To get or keep tax-exempt status, 501(c)(4) organizations must devote a majority of their work to their “primary” social-welfare purpose. Most tea party groups were set up with a primary purpose of educating Americans on pressing problems\u2014the size of government, the erosion of the Constitution\u2014and did so mainly via nonpartisan voter guides, speakers forums, pamphlets or voter-registration drives.<\/p>\n

What the proposed Treasury\/IRS regulation would do is to re-categorize all these efforts as “political activity”<\/strong>\u2014thereby making it all but impossible for tea party groups to qualify for 501(c)(4) status. Say an outfit’s primary purpose is educating voters on our unsustainable debt, which it does mainly with a guide explaining the problem and politicians’ voting records. Under the new rule, that guide is now “political activity” (rather than “social welfare”), which likely loses the group tax-exempt status. […]<\/p>\n

What makes this targeting more obvious is that the Obama Treasury rule only applies to 501(c)(4) groups. The ultra-liberal League of Women Voters Education Fund is registered as a 501(c)(3)\u2014one of those “charities” supposedly held to the strictest IRS standards on politicking. Yet it brags on its website that it holds “candidate debates and forums,” and that its “educational activities” include “understanding candidate views and ballot initiatives.”<\/p>\n

The League will continue to be able to do its voter guides and registrations and candidate forums. Yet under this new rule, any conservative social-welfare organization that attempts to do the same will likely lose its tax-exempt status<\/strong>. Nor does the new rule apply the biggest spenders of all in politics\u2014unions, which are registered as 501(c)(5)s. The only category muzzled is the one recently flooded by conservative groups that Democrats fear in the 2014 election. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, really, does anyone think Crier Boehner will oppose this blatant move?<\/p>\n

One Beltway to rule them all
\nOne Beltway to find them
\nOne Beltway to bring them all and in the darkness bind them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obama and Democrats used the IRS to suppress TEA Party activity in 2012, now they want to codify it for 2014 and beyond. In the media blackout of Thanksgiving week, the Treasury Department dumped a new proposal to govern the political activity of 501(c)(4) groups. The administration claims this rule is needed to clarify confusing tax laws. Hardly. The rule is the IRS’s new targeting program\u2014only this time systematic, more<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[756,1088,2095],"class_list":["post-52224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fascism","tag-ira","tag-tea-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52225,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224\/revisions\/52225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}