New Records: IRS Targeted Progressive Groups More Extensively Than Tea Party
Source: Think Progress
A series of IRS documents, provided to ThinkProgress under the Freedom of Information Act, appears to contradict the claims by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that only Tea Party organizations applying for tax-exempt status received systematic scrutiny because of their political beliefs. The 22 Be On the Look Out keywords lists, distributed to staff reviewing applications between August 12, 2010 and April 19, 2013, included more explicit references to progressive groups, ACORN successors, and medical marijuana organizations than to Tea Party entities.
The IRS provided the heavily-redacted lists to ThinkProgress, after nearly a year-long search. From the earliest lists through 2012, the historical section of the lists encouraged reviewers to watch out for progressive groups with names like blue, as their requests for 501(c)(3) charitable status might be inappropriate. Their inclusion in this section suggests that the concern predates the initial 2010 list.
Explicit references to Tea Party, included in the emerging issues section of the lists, also began in August 2010 but stopped appearing after the May 10, 2011 list. From that point on, the lists instructed agents to flag all political advocacy groups of any stripe. The documents instructed the agents to forward any organization involved with political, lobbying, or advocacy applying for 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status be forwarded to group 7822″ for additional review. Groups under both categories are limited in the amount of of lobbying and political activity each can undertake.
Other types of groups received explicit scrutiny for longer than progressive or Tea Party organizations. These included applicants involved with medical marijuana but not exclusively education (19 appearances in the watch list section of the lists), which were to be forwarded to a group 7888″ and groups believed to be possible successor-groups to ACORN, the now-shuttered Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (12 appearances on the watch list section). Those applications were also to be elevated to managers for further review. All 22 documents also flagged applicants with Puerto Rico addresses and certain types of Testamentary Trusts.
SNIP
n Issas committees recent report, Debunking the Myth that the IRS Targeted Progressives, the Republican majority staffers wrote that while the Be On the Lookout lists language was changed to broader political advocacy organizations, the IRS still intended to identify and single out Tea Party applications for scrutiny. The report goes to great lengths to distinguish the different types of scrutiny provided to each of these types of flagged group. But the actual IRS records indicate that at least some additional scrutiny was required for groups of all types that had names that sounded political and that the explicit heightened scrutiny for left-leaning groups was even longer-standing than for Tea Party groups.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/04/23/3429722/irs-records-tea-party/
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Or not.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)as to why Liberal groups haven't been targeted more often!
Tarheel_Dem
(31,228 posts)The TeaBag Caucus
okaawhatever
(9,461 posts)louis-t
(23,284 posts)"Yeah, but they were gunna."
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Why is ThinkProgress having to do all the legwork to defend Policies of the Democratic Party?
Surely, someone in the Administration had access to this information?
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)like progressives and Liberals.
Well I have news for you, they do not. If they did, things would be a lot different than what they are!
Leith
(7,808 posts)But it wasn't what Issa and the hysterical press wanted.
My prediction: nothing but crickets out in the real world.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)But that isn't the story they wanted to tell. Of course the media went along as if these faux scandals were valid.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)Progressive/Liberal groups have been targeted for a longer time, AND more frequently than CONservative/teabagger groups.
I know that the police infiltrated every Liberal group that I was part of since I first "became" an activist, back in the 1970s.
This is why this "news" does not surprise me in the least.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The real scandals, the scandals that should have had constant attention from the media, were entirely ignored. The theft of the 2000 presidential election, events leading up to 911, illegal surveillance, events leading up to the Iraq War, war profiteering, the theft of the 2004 election, torture and how deregulation resulted in the collapse of 2008.
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)well, not really.
onecaliberal
(32,811 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)chknltl
(10,558 posts)I am quite sure that they would want to air full retractions and publicly set the record straight regarding this matter so folks don't think that they are full of moose-poop!
okaawhatever
(9,461 posts)Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)And, I fear this will not get anywhere near the coverage the original story got.
So sad that this was not the news out of the box. The RW groups are scary. And the Stepford wives were less creepy.