Blame Citizens United for the IRS scandal

[DonViejo]

The real outrage is why these political groups have tax-exempt status in the first place

BY JARED BERNSTEIN

Nope, I’m not going to defend the IRS, which appears to have acted in ways wholly inconsistent with their mandate for unbiased investigations into, in this case, whether certain political groups should receive tax-exempt status. It is unclear how high up the chain of command these untoward actions went, but this morning’s news suggests it wasn’t just a few rogue auditors in Cincinnati.

The problem wasn’t that the agency scrutinized these so-called “social welfare” organizations—as I’ll emphasize in a moment, tax law in this area is an accident going out to happen. It’s that they violated neutrality, investigating conservative groups by searching on “tea party” and “patriot.”

Republicans will of course try to pin this on the President, despite the fact that since Nixon used the IRS to target his enemies, the president’s been barred from even discussing this kind of thing with the agency.

No, the problem here isn’t the president. It’s the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision and subsequent tax law written by Congress that gives these groups tax exempt status (under rule 501(c)(4)) as long as most of their activities are primarily on educating the public about policy issues, not direct campaigning.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/15/blame_citizens_united_for_the_irs_scandal_partner/

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

1. Kicked and bookmarked. Love Jared B!

[PearliePoo2]

2. This!

I told a friend of mine who wasn't really motivated to vote in this last election (2012 Obama/Romney), if nothing else, do it for: "Supreme Court appointees!
THIS is what you get, the fucking "Citizen's United" decision by the Re-Thug SCOTUS!


K&R