Calls Grow for State and Federal Investigations into ALEC’s Illicit Activities

[babylonsister]

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/08/calls-grow-state-federal-investigations-alecs-illicit-activities.html

Calls Grow for State and Federal Investigations into ALEC’s Illicit Activities

By: Rmuse
Aug. 8th, 2013



It is little secret that Republicans and their libertarian backers detest the idea of paying taxes, and over the past forty years one of their champions has been the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In fact, ALEC wrote a model resolution for Republicans to push through Congress urging a permanent extension of Bush-era tax cuts they claimed “spurred economic growth, allowed the spirit of entrepreneurship to flourish, and all while creating new jobs and opportunities for millions of Americans.” The blatant lie that Bush’s tax cuts for the rich created new jobs aside, the resolution revealed that ALEC is in the business of helping their corporate sponsors avoid paying taxes and it is little wonder why ALEC is being targeted for an investigation for illegally financing extravagant trips for state legislators and misleading the Internal Revenue Service about their illicit activities.

Two watchdog groups are asking the Internal Revenue Service and several state ethics committees to investigate ALEC for funneling corporate money through an ALEC slush fund to allow wealthy corporations to take a federal tax deduction for furnishing lawmakers and their families with luxurious trips at fancy resorts. One such meeting is the upcoming ALEC conference this week to celebrate the anti-democracy group’s 40th year of assisting the richest corporations write and pass legislation beneficial to their privatization efforts and profits. The watchdogs’ complaints also charge that ALEC conceals the sources of “slush funds” from public view and obscures the amount of spending from the IRS by claiming that it holds the corporate funds in “trust,” all the while writing lawmakers’ checks to cover their trips.

The so-called “scholarship fund” ALEC uses to fund the lavish trips also raises serious questions about the corporate group’s compliance with state gift and disclosure laws that in turn brings into question the legality of lawmakers’ ethics in accepting ALEC’s travel gifts and precipitated letters to state ethics committees. In question is whether Republican state legislators taking the fancy trips (bribes) disclosed the gifts on their state financial disclosures, or if they noted they originated from corporate donors seeking favorable votes on ALEC template legislation.

snip//

ALEC has been on a crusade to increase profits for corporations and CEOs with corporation voted bills to rewrite the tax code that not only eliminates most taxes for the rich, but also starves state and federal governments of revenue. Despite their successful crusade in the states, they were emboldened to devise a way for their corporate donors to deduct political contributions to Republican legislators for their services through a slush fund and fraudulently filed tax returns that massively underreported and grossly misrepresented its “scholarship scheme” in violation of their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.

According to an investigative report, ALEC’S member companies funneled at least $4 million for lawmakers since 2006 into the “scholarship” fund, and it is incumbent on the IRS and state ethics committees to uncover the malfeasance and prosecute the violators to the fullest extent of the law. It is important for Americans to remember that one of the worst criminals in American history eluded prosecution for years, and it was the Internal Revenue Service that finally put Al Capone in prison for the rest of his life for simple income tax evasion. Capone was a bad man guilty of hurting and killing many people, but he was a saint compared to the damage inflicted by the American Legislative Exchange Council on the American people and democracy, and it is possible the IRS can take them down for tax evasion as well.

[Turbineguy]

1. Nobody likes to pay taxes.

But some of us realize that taxes are part of the cost of living in a civilized society. And the benefits of a civilized society outweigh the costs. Republicans don't want to live in a civilized society. They want to live in an armed society.

[babylonsister]

2. You got it...

[KoKo]

3. I hope this can succeed...but, given that the IRS is being "overhauled" and

the new person in charge might be corporate friendly....I wonder how long it will take to do this investigation. In the meantime Alec is almost 3/4ths of their way through remaking many States to their own blueprint. North Carolina has been so devastated that I doubt we can get back what we've lost in voting rights, education, health care and liberties.

Tax Code would seem a good way given that Citizen United Decision allows Koch and Alec to do what they want...but, it depends on the New IRS...and the character of the new Director.

[Thav]

4. I'd like to add

"and funnel tax revenues into the coffers of corporate sponsors" after "... ALEC is in the business of helping their corporate sponsors avoid paying taxes"

They have model legislation that does just that - privatizing schools. Corps get revenue from the dept of education, and have very little oversight or responsibility to actually deliver on that money.

[hue]

5. So TRUE!!

[hue]

6. ALEC has been around since 1973 quietly writing legislation that supports corporate advantages.

ALEC's (and other RW organizations like the Heritage Foundation) covert operations have been going on for quite awhile.
For 40 yrs. the average citizen was under the assumption that legislators actually represented them and their interests. Meanwhile an elite group of the very wealthy were actualizing their corporate advantages and accumulating massive stockpiles of wealth-->now mostly off shore in tax havens where it may never be taxed.

[Wounded Bear]

7. There really is a 'vast right wing conspiracy'.....

[starroute]

8. Except that it isn't all that vast

The same small number of names keep coming up over and over. The Heritage Foundation, ALEC, the State Policy Network (an umbrella group of conservative think-tanks), the Collegiate Network (which sponsors conservative campus newspapers), the Capital Research Center (the source of most anti-ACORN propaganda and of Glenn Beck's elaborate conspiracy theories), and Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute (the main right-wing school for dirty tricks) are all closely connected, have overlapping advisory boards, and engage in joint projects.

Add in the people who are part of Ginni Thomas's Groundswell, and you pretty much have the whole ball of wax. They're just very good at making themselves seem larger and more influential than they really are. Having access to lots of corporate money can do that.

[octoberlib]

9. ALEC is the root of the problem.

Almost all the horrible bills that were passed in NC this past legislative session were ALEC model bills. Glad to see this.

[indepat]

10. DOJ will hop on this just like ugly on an ape

[Scuba]

11. Just as soon as they bust the last State-licensed MMJ grower in the Country!

[indepat]

12. Our government's priorities are fucked-up beyond all reason, common sense, and

basic humanity imo. But that's what right-wing governance for the better part of the last one-third of a century begets: our society is wholly fucked in the short-, near-, and possibly long-term. All hail the magnificent gipper and his reichous-wing vision for America.