I’m glad that the New York Times has finally got around to reporting on the real scandal, which is that oligarchs are using the 501(c)(4) tax status to hide their donations to right-wing Tea Party groups whose only function is to elect Republicans.
It is time to play offense on this issue. People hate the Tea Party and they hate the oligarchs. They hate the resulting dysfunction in Congress. They hate Congress, but these 501(c)(4) groups are a huge factor in why they hate Congress, even if the people don’t really know about them.
The real scandal is that the IRS did not ultimately deny tax-exempt status to even one of these groups, and none of them deserved tax-exempt status because none of them are primarily concerned with social welfare.
A boomerang scamdal?!
It has that potential IF influential Dems grab the ball and run with it.
But aren’t they taking money from the same oligarchs?
I would like to believe that the political goals of the Democratic party are quite different than those of the “Tea Party” financed in large part by the Koch Brothers and Co. Do Dems take contributions from corporate America? I assume so. Do they aspire to create the Largest Banana Republic in the world??? Call me naive, but even at my age, I think not.
NC an interesting test case, this story from the Orange place
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/26/1211859/-What-s-the-Matter-with-North-Carolina-Ground-Zero-
for-the-Reactionary-Agenda
Spot on RIGHT! My take on this changed when I saw the former head of the IRS (Bush appointed) explain that NONE of these groups had to file for tax exempt status in advance. That was a “red flag” to me saying that this was a set-up/trap by the nasty people.
I’m stunned that it took so long for the Dems to fight back with the truth. Or – are they fighting yet? Not so sure. I think they are still in apology mode for something that was done correctly.
But as Boo says – the REAL scandal is that ANY of these groups got tax expmpt status. They are 100% political.
And so, too, are many churches in this country, political.
And I’d be perfectly ok with eliminating tax exemptions on churches, as well as these fairly blatantly political “social welfare” groups.
Too many churches in this country are using “faith” as a means to continue to allow straight (preferably white) males, to stay in power.
So didn’t Obama jump the gun by firing the IRS commissioner and blasting the IRS? But how can that be when Obama is perfect and just plays 11th dimensional chess?
Pretty much everything is wrong with your comment.
The fact that the real scandal is that the IRS granted tax-exempt status to these groups doesn’t mean that the IRS didn’t do real and lasting damage by the way in which they treated these groups.
Obama was correct to shit-can the leadership of the IRS, both substantively and politically.
And, no one has ever argued on these pages that Obama is perfect, does no wrong, or makes no mistakes.
Highlights what I noted earlier in a comment:
Are not the usual suspects the donors?
I don’t think the people hate oligarchs. I think they envy them.
“… none of them deserved tax-exempt status because none of them are primarily concerned with social welfare.”
The other scandal is that the statute says that these groups must be “exclusively” concerned with social welfare but somehow the IRS decided to change the language to “primarily”.