Executive Order: I'm Hoping Obama Signs The Following Executive Order on, say...October 1st:

[TrollBuster9090]

Last edited Tue Apr 1, 2014, 10:08 PM - Edit history (1)

"The language of the Tax Code regarding 501c4 organizations will be followed to the letter and interpreted literally, ensuring that 501c4 status will only be granted to organizations that devote their money EXCLUSIVELY (rather than primarily) to the promotion of social welfare. All organizations that have been granted 501c4 status will henceforth abide by this language."

Yeah...sign THAT Executive Order just AFTER Adelson and the Kochs have just dumped $500,000,000 into a bunch of 501c3 organizations, and then watch as their heads explode at the idea of all that advertising money being spent on THE POOR for a change.

The actual language in the tax code is here:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/501

It states that 501c4 organizations are to devote their money exclusively to charity and the promotion of social welfare. In 1959 the IRS unilaterally, and without input from Congress started interpreting 'exclusively' to mean 'primarily,' and now the IRS needs to go around confirming that no more than 49% of their money is spent on politics. Sorry, but 'exclusively' doesn't mean 'less than 50%' as Democrat Gerry Connolly eloquently explains here:

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/darrell-issa-irs-kangaroo-court-convened

[Rod Beauvex]

1. Context.

We need some.

[TrollBuster9090]

9. Sorry about that. I added a little more context to the post, as well as a link to

the tax code, and a section of the Lawrence O'Donnell show where it was discussed.

[harrose]

2. I don't think the President can re-write the Tax Code by Executive Order

I'm pretty sure that Congress has to give their OK to that.

[Scuba]

4. Doesn't have to. The code says "exclusively" but the IRS interpretation has been "primarily".

All he has to do is order them to follow the letter of the law.

[former9thward]

3. I assume you a talking about a 501c4

But the Kochs don't operate with those. They use 527s. But no matter. A president can't change this by an EO. Only Congress.

[Scuba]

5. Please see my post #4.

[former9thward]

6. I doubt a court would uphold that.

That interpretation is about 50 years old and has gone through Presidents of both parties and Congresses of both parties. If a President reversed course with a sudden stroke of a pen and no input from Congress the courts would knock it down.

[TrollBuster9090]

8. In fact, the opposite is true. A court wouldn't uphold what's been happening since 1959

ie-The IRS unilaterally changing the interpretation of the text from 'exclusive' to 'primarily,' and then interpreting 'primarily' to mean 51%; leaving these organizations free to spend 49% of their donations on political attack ads and organizing negative political campaigns. It's just that nobody ever challenged them doing this.

(I've edited the original post. I now see that the text of the tax code was never changed. Just the IRS's interpretation of it; which was never written down. All the President has to do is issue an executive order that the text of the 501c4 section of the tax code must be interpreted literally.)

[TrollBuster9090]

7. Thanks I changed it.

But, as has already been pointed out, the President doesn't have to change any text. The text is clear, the money in 501c4s has to be spent exclusively on promoting social welfare. It's just that in 1959 the IRS started interpreting 'exclusive' to mean 'primarily,' and interpreting 'primarily' to mean 'more than half.' All the President has to do with an executive order is to tell the IRS to enforce the text LITERALLY; which is a much, much smaller deal that George W. Bush signing laws, and then issuing signing statements saying it's up to him to personally interpret what they mean.