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HOLLYWOOD
05-17-2013, 01:27 AM
http://conservativefiringline.com/flashback-chuck-schumer-al-franken-sign-letter-demanding-irs-target-tea-party-groups-in-2012/


Flashback: Chuck Schumer, Al Franken sign letter demanding IRS target Tea Party groups in 2012
Posted on May 15, 2013 (http://conservativefiringline.com/flashback-chuck-schumer-al-franken-sign-letter-demanding-irs-target-tea-party-groups-in-2012/) by jnewby (http://conservativefiringline.com/author/jnewby/)
http://conservativefiringline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/schumer-150x150.jpg (http://conservativefiringline.com/flashback-chuck-schumer-al-franken-sign-letter-demanding-irs-target-tea-party-groups-in-2012/schumer/)
It’s becoming quite clear that there’s a new McCarthyism ruling in America. If you’re a conservative or oppose Obama, you can face scrutiny by the IRS or have your information given to George Soros-funded political groups. It’s all meant to keep you in line.

sCHUMER'S WEBSITE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 12, 2012


SENATE DEMOCRATS URGE IRS TO IMPOSE STRICT CAP ON POLITICAL SPENDING BY NONPROFIT GROUPS—VOW LEGISLATION IF AGENCY DOESN’T ACT


Senators Seek To End Tax Code Abuse By Political Groups Masquerading As ‘Social Welfare Organizations’

In Letter to IRS, Lawmakers Say Firm Limit Should Be Set on Percentage of Nonprofits’ Spending That Can Be Devoted To Political Activities

Reforms Also Urged To Prevent Political Donors From Claiming Tax Deduction For Their Contributions


WASHINGTON, D.C. – A group of seven Senate Democrats urged the Internal Revenue Service on Monday to impose a strict cap on the amount of political spending by tax-exempt, nonprofit groups.



In 2012, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Al Franken, D-Minn., and five other Democrats signed a letter (http://www.schumer.senate.gov/Newsroom/record.cfm?id=336270) demanding the IRS target conservative groups or face legislation forcing them to do so.
The letter says in part:
We write to ask the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) to immediately change the administrative framework for enforcement of the tax code as it applies to groups designated as “social welfare” organizations. These groups receive tax and other advantages under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code (hereinafter, “IRC” or the “Code”), but some of them also are engaged in a substantial amount of political campaign activity. As you know, we sent a letter last month expressing concerns about the 501(c)(4) issue; an investigation this week by the New York Times has uncovered new, specific problems on how c)4)s conduct business. We wanted to address those new concerns in this letter.
IRS regulations have long maintained that political campaign activity by a 501(c)(4) entity must not be the “primary purpose” of the organization. These regulations are intended to implement the statute, which requires that such organizations be operated exclusively for the public welfare. But we think the existing IRS regulations run afoul of the law since they only require social welfare activities to be the ‘primary purpose’ of a nonprofit when the Code says this must be its ‘exclusive’ purpose. In recent years, this daylight between the law and the IRS regulations has been exploited by groups devoted chiefly to political election activities who operate behind a facade of charity work.


The letter closes with this:
“The IRS should already possess the authority to issue immediate guidance on this matter. We urge the IRS to take these steps immediately to prevent abuse of the tax code by political groups focused on federal election activities. But if the IRS is unable to issue administrative guidance in this area then we plan to introduce legislation to accomplish these important changes.”


In other words, target conservatives OR ELSE.

We’ve now seen the results. Conservatives have been harassed and intimidated into silence while others have been forced to disclose unbelievably ridiculous information.

One group, Linchpins of Liberty (http://www.examiner.com/article/irs-ordered-list-of-high-school-college-students-trained-by-conservative-group), for example, was ordered to release the names of every high school or college student it ever trained OR PLANNED TO TRAIN.

The Blaze said that a Catholic professor (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/15/exclusive-prominent-catholic-prof-claims-irs-audited-her-after-speaking-out-against-obama-and-demanded-to-know-who-was-paying-her/) was essentially intimidated into silence by the IRS, who demanded to know the politics of the person or group paying her.

Even Christian ministries (http://www.examiner.com/article/franklin-graham-irs-targeted-ministry-after-criticism-of-obama) have been targeted by the IRS.

This is Obama’s America, aided and abetted by the extreme leftists in Congress and their allies in the Democrat-media complex.
Welcome to the era of “Fundamental Transformation,” where you, too, can be targeted and silenced simply because you disagree with Obama.

HOLLYWOOD
05-17-2013, 06:10 PM
Friday bump... SCHUMER & FRANKEN attacked Tea Parties through the IRS.

Warlord
05-17-2013, 06:16 PM
And Shaheen (2014)

Christian Liberty
05-17-2013, 06:48 PM
I live in NYS. If I chance to come into contact with this man, I will make sure he knows I am a Ron Paul supporter....

sluggo
05-17-2013, 07:06 PM
Schumer is a walking advertisement for term limits.

tangent4ronpaul
05-17-2013, 07:14 PM
everyone that signed it:

Senators Charles E. Schumer, Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, Tom Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Al Franken

-t

supermario21
05-17-2013, 07:29 PM
That's funny, Merkley, Udall, Shaheen, and Franken are all up in 14

tangent4ronpaul
05-17-2013, 07:57 PM
That's funny, Merkley, Udall, Shaheen, and Franken are all up in 14

hmmm... what states?

any of them planning on retiring?

-t

RabbitMan
05-17-2013, 07:57 PM
I don't see anywhere in your excerpts of your letter where it talks about 'Tea Party' or 'Conservative Groups'.

It sounds like they wanted to close a loop-hole in the tax structure. Am I missing something?

HOLLYWOOD
05-18-2013, 02:08 AM
I don't see anywhere in your excerpts of your letter where it talks about 'Tea Party' or 'Conservative Groups'.

It sounds like they wanted to close a loop-hole in the tax structure. Am I missing something?Guessing it's a "Run Signal"... for the election year, (March 12, 2012 letter). We're still doing the correlation of timelines between political actions by those on Capital hill and IRS actions on conservative groups/individuals, trying to find all those matches.

It is Pandora's Box that has opened up.

sailingaway
05-18-2013, 02:13 AM
Media Matters is a 501c and it is most certainly not for the public welfare by the terms of that letter.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BKiHJEOCEAAJ3Yg.jpg:large

HOLLYWOOD
05-18-2013, 03:12 AM
Here's another "Run Signal" to the IRS, this one is in 2010. Max Baucus, D-MT sent a letter to the Commissioner Douglas Shulman running the IRS.

http://newstalkkgvo.com/read-max-baucus-request-for-the-internal-revenue-service-to-investigate-tax-exempt-political-groups/

http://getliberty.org/2013/05/

Baucus’ letter also instructed Shulman that “Possible violation of tax laws should be identified as you conduct this study. Please report back to the Finance Committee as soon as possible with your findings and recommended actions regarding this matter.” Baucus specifically referenced a Sept. 16, 2010 Time article, “The New GOP Money Stampede” (http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2019611,00.html) reporting that “Democrats fear [what] could be a $300 million Republican spending blitz this year.” The story detailed allegations that local tea party groups were actually “shadow Republican groups formed by longtime party officials.” The article referenced the tea party, but also American Crossroads, American Action Network, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as forming a wider campaign front for the 2010 Republican election campaign effort, financed “in the form of secret undisclosed contributions.”
Baucus also referenced “a group transforming itself into a non-profit under 501(c)(4) of the tax code,” ensuring, as the Time article put it, that the group would “not have to publicly disclose any information about its donors.” That “group” Baucus referenced was actually Crossroads GPS.
“The Time article Baucus so prominently referenced was all about the financing of Republican election efforts and right of center political and advocacy organizations,” Mehrens noted in his letter, adding, “It did not scrutinize any left-wing groups. Nor did Baucus include in his letter to Shulman any footnotes to articles that detailed Democrat campaign activities or left of center groups. The implicit task was to investigate the political right from start to finish. And that’s exactly what the IRS did.”

Yesterday, Baucus issued a statement suggesting (http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/chairman/release/?id=33bfd1ec-90e5-4a74-9e27-2c2fb495dfbb) “Targeting groups based on their political views is not only inappropriate but it is intolerable, promising a “full investigation into this matter by the Senate Finance Committee.”
But that is not possible, Mehrens said, considering Baucus’ letter to Shulman. “Senate Democrats were complicit in the IRS scandal targeting the tea party and other groups, per Baucus’ explicit letter to Shulman. The Senate majority must therefore recuse itself from any ensuing investigation in order to ensure that the public’s trust in the inquiry’s findings is not tainted.”

The only good option, Mehrens wrote, was for Senate leaders to call on Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special counsel to prosecute the case. “Just as the Senate majority cannot be trusted to investigate its own complicity in this affair, neither can the Obama Administration.”

He concluded, “These targeted attacks by the IRS were not about restoring ‘transparency’ to our political process, they were a part of a brazen partisan assault using the instrumentalities of the state to harass political opponents and stifle dissent to achieve a partisan end. It is beyond Nixonian in its flagrant disregard for the rule of law. Only a special counsel can get to the bottom of this.”
Mehrens joined others, including the Republican Governors Association, who today also demanded a special prosecutor be appointed.

Attachments:

Americans for Limited Government letter to Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, May 14, 2013 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/IRSScandalLetter-5-14-13.pdf (http://getliberty.org/2013/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/IRSScandalLetter-5-14-13.pdf)
Letter from Sen. Max Baucus to then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Sept. 28, 2010 at http://www.politico.com/static/PPM176_100929_irs.html
“The New GOP Money Stampede,” by Michael Crowley, Time Magazine, Sept. 16, 2010 at http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2019611,00.html
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org (media@algnews.org) to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

##


September 28, 2010

The Honorable Douglas H. Shulman
Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20224
Via Electronic Transmission

Dear Commissioner Shulman:
The Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over revenue matters, and the
Committee is responsible for conducting oversight of the administration of the federal tax
system, including matters involving tax-exempt organizations. The Committee has
focused extensively over the past decade on whether tax–exempt groups have been used
for lobbying or other financial or political gain.

The central question examined by the Committee has been whether certain
charitable or social welfare organizations qualify for the tax-exempt status provided
under the Internal Revenue Code.

Recent media reports on various 501(c)(4) organizations engaged in political
activity have raised serious questions about whether such organizations are operating in
compliance with the Internal Revenue Code.
The law requires that political campaign activity by a 501(c)(4), (c)(5) or (c)(6)
entity must not be the primary purpose of the organization.
If it is determined the primary purpose of the 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6)
organization is political campaign activity the tax exemption for that nonprofit can be
terminated.

Even if political campaign activity is not the primary purpose of a 501(c)(4),
(c)(5), and (c)(6) organization, it must notify its members of the portion of dues paid due
to political activity or pay a proxy tax under Section 6033(e).

Also, tax-exempt organizations and their donors must not engage in private
inurement or excess benefit transactions. These rules prevent private individuals or
groups from using tax-exempt organizations to benefit their private interests or to profit
from the tax-exempt organization’s activities.

A September 23 New York Times article entitled “Hidden Under a Tax-Exempt
Cloak, Private Dollars Flow” described the activities of the organization Americans for
Job Security. An Alaska Public Office Commission investigation revealed that AJS,
organized as an entity to promote social welfare under 501(c)(6), fought development in
Alaska at the behest of a “local financier who paid for most of the referendum
campaign.” The Commission report said that “Americans for Job Security has no other
purpose other than to cover money trails all over the country.” The article also noted that
“membership dues and assessments ... plunged to zero before rising to $12.2 million for
the presidential race.”

A September 16 Time Magazine article examined the activities of Washington
D.C. based 501(c)(4) groups planning a “$300 million … spending blitz” in the 2010
elections. The article describes a group transforming itself into a nonprofit under
501(c)(4) of the tax code, ensuring that they would not have to “publically disclose any
information about its donors.”

These media reports raise a basic question: Is the tax code being used to eliminate
transparency in the funding of our elections – elections that are the constitutional bedrock
of our democracy? They also raise concerns about whether the tax benefits of nonprofits
are being used to advance private interests.

With hundreds of millions of dollars being spent in election contests by tax-exempt entities, it is time to take a fresh look at current practices and how they comport
with the Internal Revenue Code’s rules for nonprofits.

I request that you and your agency survey major 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6)
organizations involved in political campaign activity to examine whether they are
operated for the organization’s intended tax exempt purpose and to ensure that political
campaign activity is not the organization’s primary activity. Specifically you should
examine if these political activities reach a primary purpose level – the standard imposed
by the federal tax code – and if they do not, whether the organization is complying with
the notice or proxy tax requirements of Section 6033(e). I also request that you or your
agency survey major 501(c)(4), (c)(5), and (c)(6) organizations to determine whether they
are acting as conduits for major donors advancing their own private interests regarding
legislation or political campaigns, or are providing major donors with excess benefits.

Possible violation of tax laws should be identified as you conduct this study.

Please report back to the Finance Committee as soon as possible with your
findings and recommended actions regarding this matter.
Based on your report I plan to ask the Committee to open

Cap
05-18-2013, 05:07 AM
everyone that signed it:

Senators Charles E. Schumer, Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, Tom Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Al Franken

-tWhat, no McCain or his distinguished colleague Lindsey Graham?

HOLLYWOOD
05-23-2013, 10:07 PM
Both Senate Snakes Weasel... watch the video and the pathetic staffer


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jRHBgf2gH0U#!