Posted by Tina
I knew it had to happen after the IRS targeting scandal was exposed and caused disruption at the agency with Lois Lerner stepping down and pleading the fifth. After all there’s always hell to pay when the left gets caught. The new target is the Patrick Henry Center for Individual Freedom whose president is former FBI agent Gary Aldrich.
The infraction cited is criticism of John Kerry and Hillary Clinton…an absolute joke:
The IRS said the center acted as an “action organization” by publishing alerts on its website for columns written by its president, former FBI agent Gary Aldrich, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The IRS pointed out a column that appeared to be published by Townhall on April 2, 2004, in which Mr. Aldrich wrote, “if John Kerry promises otherwise ill-informed swing-voters lower gas prices at the pump, more than a few greedy, registered ignoramuses will follow him anywhere,” the Free Beacon reported.
Another article cited by the IRS was a 2005 piece titled “Stop Hillary Now!,” which rallied “Clinton haters” to inform voters of Hillary Clinton’s “atrocious conduct,” USA Today reported.
Are you kidding me? Is there a single left wing 501c4 that hasn’t participated in even more overt political ways? Left nonprofits exist for purely political reasons…some operate in churches for heavens sake! To my knowledge, none of these groups has ever been targeted or had their status revoked…NONE! The revocation will probably be challenged but isn’t that part of the strategy? Keep the right leaning groups busy doing paperwork and they have less time to participate in the election. For the record 501c4’s are allowed to do political work within certain limitations
I would think that after the obvious political nature of the targeting scandal the first test case for the new directors changes in the rules would be a leftist group, or at least a balanced list of several groups. The IRS could certainly use some positive PR to clean up its own partisan activist political image. But lefties are in charge and lefties just don’t operate that way. They will do anything and they have no shame.
Original article source at The Free Beacon
Emerge America was one lefty group that the IRS denied a couple of years ago. But while the statements attributed to the Patrick Henry Center are obviously political in nature, you’re right that they aren’t that different from what many 501c4 organizations on both the left and right say all the time, and most of those groups are still in operation.
Revoke ALL their tax-free statuses. That includes even organizations I generally like, such as Media Matters. While I find most of their information accurate, their activity is obviously partisan and political, and thus should not be subsidized. The same goes for their closest right-wing equivalent, the Media Research Center, which is also a 501c4 corp for some reason. Tax breaks should be given to genuine charities and other non-partisan groups that do genuine, measurable good in society, not to anyone who wants to save money while promoting their political causes.
Welcome to Obumble’s IRS, HHS, DOJ, NSA, and the rest of his alphabet departments – where you get attacked if you do not agree with Liar-in-Chief.
IRS no longer has any more credibility than Obumble does.