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njlauren -> RE: IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups (5/11/2013 8:41:20 AM)
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If they could prove that someone in the Obama administration told the IRS to do this, which is what Nixon did, then you could make a point, but there is no evidence, no smoking gun, showing higher ups ordered this.
Non profit groups operate under tight tax rules, it doesn't matter who they are, and under the law any kind of non profit, whether it is religious or secular, are supposed to limit their political activities. Because of citizens united, a lot of overtly political groups are filing for non profit status and using that as a dodge for overt political activity while not having to pay taxes. The Koch Brothers are funding many of the so called grassroots tea party movements that have filed this way, which among other things allows the Koch Brothers to deduct what is being used for political reasons as a charitable/non profit donation.
Non profits can advocate on issues, but they are not supposed to support candidates or actively work at lobbying. When Catholic priests or Bishops speak in their official capacity and say things like their parishioners should vote for the republicans because of their stance on abortions and gays, they are violating the law, the hillbilly evangelical preacher who says God tells them to vote GOP, is doing the same thing...frankly a lot of clergy if the government wasn't so chicken shit would be in deep trouble. On the other hand, saying that abortion or same sex marriage is against their faiths teachings and take that into consideration at the polls is fine. A non profit can do non partisan political work, like get out the vote efforts or drive people to the polls, but they cannot do it partisanly (they cannot agree only to drive republicans or democrats to the polls). They cannot operate, as more then a few evangelical churches have been caught doing, having phone banks calling people to tell them to vote for candidates, because that is electioneering.
It has been abused a lot by people across the spectrum, but it has become especially prevalent with the tea party acting as a front for the Koch Brothers and other well heeled donors, and they are abusing the regs, same with the religious right with their zeal to be true blue GOP.Citizens united made it much worse, because now you have billions of dollars to spend, and being fronted through supposed non profits to both mask where it is coming from (WSJ did an article about the Tea Party groups, 70% of their funding is the Koch brothers and a handful of other uber rich folks), and also to give illegal tax donations for political work, which is not a valid deduction.
The irony is those rules were put in place to stop abuse of the non profits. By making those rules the idea was that politicians couldnt use their tax exampt status as a tool to force them to work for them, they couldn't say "campaign for me, support me, or I'll pull your exemption", if non profits can 't do that, then they have no pull; likewise, non profits that get government funds to run programs could be blackmailed the same way, if they were able to electioneer. You already see it with the religious right in a sense, they so totally sold their soul to the GOP that they have been amazingly silent (or worse) supporting the Ayn Rand party line, including demonizing the poor as lazy and not wanting to work, which last I checked, is not what the Bible says, all because the GOP supports their stance on social issues like abortion, same sex marriage and prayer in schools. It was designed to keep the work of non profits shielded from politics in the first place. It is being abused, and I don't care whether it is left wing, right wing or no wing, they should be clamping down on this, and if needed, pulling tax exempt status.
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