Why the IRS should revoke Alec's charitable status

[marmar]

Why the IRS should revoke Alec's charitable status
Would the American Legislative Exchange Council tout its lawmaking influence to corporate backers if it wasn't a lobbyist?

Bob Edgar
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 April 2012


You'd think that an American business taking part in a scheme to secretly lobby for the passage of state laws tailored to fattening its profits at the expense of the public good would be shunned by customers and marginalized in the marketplace.

But today, mega-companies like Walmart, Koch Industries, Pfizer and State Farm Insurance are openly, if quietly engaged in just such an effort. They call it the American Legislative Exchange Council, or Alec, cloak it in rhetoric about free speech and free markets, and whine like spoiled children when someone dares to tell the truth about what it's up to.

This Monday, Common Cause is announcing a whistleblower complaint against Alec filed with the Internal Revenue Service. We've submitted several thousand pages of Alec's internal records that we believe demonstrate, beyond debate, that Alec is evading federal taxes by masquerading as a charity and misleading the IRS and the American public about its activities.

We're asking the IRS to end this charade, cancel Alec's tax exemption, collect years of unpaid taxes and "impose necessary penalties". The complaint (pdf) includes Alec memos, emails, "issue alerts", "talking points" and draft press releases touting Alec's "model" bills. Lawmakers introduce Alec's legislation, which often is drafted for them by corporate lobbyists, without disclosing its Alec lineage; and they accept Alec's backroom coaching to guide it to passage. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/23/irs-american-legislative-exchange-council-status

[DirkGently]

1. If anything, ALEC is more blatant cash-for-influence than other lobbying.

It's holistic. What do Wal-Mart and AT&T and State Farm have in common? Why, they'd like fewer marginalized people to vote.

Why stop at corrupting one element of federal law, when you can subvert the whole thing?

[grahamhgreen]

2. My guess is they will pretend to pack up shop, but actually re-emerge a more secretive entity.

[midnight]

3. Does tax exempt mean that all those vacations lavished on our elected officials

,is written off, or how does tax exempt effect this enterprise?